


Your Most Important Person

by yunyu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Certain Character Deaths Have Been Deemed Stupid and Ignored, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending For Some, Hatake Kakashi-centric, I'm Sorry, Multi, Naruto Got All Up In My Business Wanting a Big Role In This Fic, Oops, POV Hatake Kakashi, Sakura Isn't On Kakashi's Team, Secrets, So I Made Him Suffer, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, That'll Show Him, This Was Supposed To Be A One Shot, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:59:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 52,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8484982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunyu/pseuds/yunyu
Summary: Some people got their soulmarks on their arms or faces or some other place that was more difficult to hide. He remembered how Minato-sensei’s hair would sometimes be lifted by the wind enough to reveal “Uzumaki Kushina dattebane!” written boldly across the back of his neck in crimson. His teacher had sometimes laughed in his gentle way about it, saying that fate was determined to make things easy for him.
 Your Most Important PersonOr, Kakashi tries to fight fate and fate fights back.Or, how many ways can a soulmark screw you over?Or, sometimes you just have to take what you can get.(A note about relationship tags: since this is a Kakashi-centric fic, to avoid baiting sidepairs and the tag/spoiler dilemma, I am only tagging the Kakashi ships.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really sorry about this.
> 
> Not sorry enough not to post it, but really sorry.

He was technically on duty, sitting in the shadows of a rooftop, watching for threats. He should not have been distracted by anything else.

Yet he could not resist counting down the hours, then minutes and seconds until the stroke of midnight would turn him sixteen years old.

When it did, he felt a burning sensation trickling down his side. Well, in one sense that was a relief. Some people got their soulmarks on their arms or faces or some other place that was more difficult to hide. He remembered how Minato-sensei’s hair would sometimes be lifted by the wind enough to reveal “Uzumaki Kushina dattebane!” written boldly across the back of his neck in crimson. His teacher had sometimes laughed in his gentle way about it, saying that fate was determined to make things easy for him.

He rubbed a gloved hand down under his cloak, but with his vest on he couldn’t feel anything different.

Kakashi knew he ought to just wait and look at it later, but the roiling mix of hope and dread within him was proving too much for even his level of self-denial.

He pulled off the cloak. The cold September night jolted away any tiredness he felt from five days in a row of night duty as he quickly unzipped the vest and took it off too. Then he pulled up the undershirt and attempted to read the writing. There was a bright moon, but with his sharingan covered up and the porcelain mask on, he couldn’t make out the words. They were written in a colour that wasn’t too contrasting. He couldn’t quite tell in the moonlight, but it looked like it might be yellow, orange, peach, something like that.

To take off his porcelain mask on duty was a huge violation of the rules.

Well, sometimes rules were meant to be broken.

With the mask pulled back on top of his head, he could make out that it said, “Gomen nasai, sensei!”

The dread pushed away all the hope. Numbly, he pulled the mask back down and reassembled his ANBU uniform.

When he met Rin the first time, he would have been five… the academy entrance ceremony… Rin, with her sweet, peacemaking nature, trying to cover for Obito who was late… she could have easily been apologizing to the teacher on Obito’s behalf when Kakashi first came into her presence…

He could barely remember that first year at the academy at all. Just little still images, like the place where they lined up against the wall before being paired off for sparring practice, or using a water jutsu out of boredom when it was his turn to clean the toilets. He only knew that Rin was the one who enabled Obito to attend the academy that year because she used to gently tease Obito about it when he was acting like he was ready to cry, saying that she didn’t go to the trouble of getting his documents for him for him to give up.

Fleetingly he considered the possibility that it could have been another student, but there was just no point. Hadn’t this been what he was dreading all these years since her death? What he already knew he had done?

He had killed his own soulmate.

The porcelain mask hid the tears that threatened to fall.

———

Of all the objections that Kakashi made to him being made a jounin sensei—and he made a lot—it never even occurred to him to say that he was worried about his student being his soulmate. His soulmate was Rin, and Rin was dead.

He’d been warned by the Hokage that Naruto was a prankster, so when he finally made his way down the hall to the classroom, his senses were on high alert for traps, exploding tags, seals… but not for chalkboard erasers.

He remained stock still with his head poking through the door, contemplating the three children in front of him. The hysterically laughing blond taunting him, the Uchiha with his contemptuous gaze, and lastly a pink haired girl who was babbling about being sorry.

This was who he was stuck with?

“How to put this… my first impression of you three is… I hate you. Follow me.”

And as they followed him, his mind suddenly registered _exactly_ how the rosette had begun her not entirely convincing speech.

“Gomen nasai, sensei!”

It was… just a coincidence… right?

The familiar miasma of dread spread over him as he propped himself on a railing, although outwardly he remained relaxed and bored. It was a mask that served him even better than his cloth one at times like this.

To stall for time, he asked them to introduce themselves. When Naruto challenged him to answer it first, he gave non-answers. The girl grumbled about it, then Naruto happily announced his name, his devotion to ramen, and his aspiration to become Hokage. The Uchiha didn’t like anything, disliked lots of things, and intended to kill someone and restore his clan. Obviously Itachi was the someone.

The girl also gave non-answers, but for a very different reason. She obviously had a hopeless crush on the Uchiha. She clutched her tiny hands to her chin and squealed.

It was so sweet and innocent that it made him want to puke.

How could his soulmate be a rose-tinted child like this?

He realized that they were all staring at him.

“That’s enough for today,” Kakashi said abruptly, and only caught the first few words of Naruto’s protest before he body flickered away, straight to the Hokage Tower.

———

The Hokage refused to let him abandon the team. When Kakashi finally relented and admitted that it was because the girl was his possible soulmate, the Sandaime offered to switch her with Inuzuka Kiba or Hyuuga Hinata from Kurenai’s team.

“The Inuzuka,” he said immediately. “I know how to work with ninken.”

He didn’t think to tell the Hokage not to give the girl the reason for the switch.

When she banged on his apartment door the next evening, he thought she had come to beg him to intercede for her to be put back with the Uchiha’s team. Her chakra was certainly agitated.

But when he opened the door, she was fixing _him_ with that same mesmerized, girlish look she’d given the Uchiha. “Am I… really your soulmate?” she breathed.

“You shouldn’t be here. You need to leave.”

“But if I’m your soulmate, we should get to know—”

“I don’t have any interest in getting to know you,” he said coldly.

Her green eyes began to glisten with tears. “But—but—”

“I’m not your sensei, and I really doubt that you’re my soulmate. I am almost certain that it is someone else, someone who has died. I was simply eliminating the one in a thousand chance. Please don’t bother me anymore.” He closed the door in her face.

It hurt to hear her start to cry on the other side of the door, to feel the devastation in her chakra signature as she fled. He told himself resolutely that this didn’t mean anything, and went to shower.

———

When the dust settled from the end of the Sand and Sound invasion, there were two new Leaf chuunin. Nara Shikamaru, and Haruno Sakura.

Kakashi had angrily confronted Kurenai when he heard she was entering her team in the first place. To say that he was surprised by the girl’s performance was an understatement.

“Perfect chakra control”—“most promising genjutsu user we’ve seen at the chuunin exams in years”—“strong will”—“needs work on her emotional control, though.”

His own team did not do so well. Also understatement. Sasuke was now under the dominion of Orochimaru, and Naruto had also left the village with his father’s sensei, Jiraiya. Kiba rejoined Team 8, because Sakura was scouted to become a medic nin under Tsunade.

Kakashi went back to missions.

———

When he next encountered the girl, it was when he was surprised to find her assigned to his team to help rescue the Kazekage. Apparently Tsunade either didn’t know or didn’t care that she could be his soulmate.

He told himself he could be professional about this. She was far too young for him anyway—still only fifteen, still too young to even see her own soulmark.

Sakura turns out to be completely professional—she spends most of the journey silent, but speaks occasionally to Naruto, who it seems still has a crush on her; and to Temari, mostly relevant questions about Suna. By the time they’ve gotten to Suna, he’s confident he can disregard any supposed connection between them.

In the fever dream of his recovery in hospital, he thinks about her.

_You’re just tormenting yourself because you don’t want to admit you already lost your chance. You killed Rin, you killed your soulmate already, she’s gone, you’ll never find your match in this world, you’ll die alone._

_No, you’re tormenting yourself because you don’t want to admit it could be true. Because if she is your soulmate, she will inevitably suffer, and you know it, and you know you’ll be the cause of it._

_She is_ fifteen.

_She is amazing—smart, strong, beautiful, kind._

_You are a sick, sad man._

———

They were constantly together but they were never really together.

She turned sixteen on their way to the Five Kage Summit. He didn’t fall asleep until long after midnight in the room he shared with Tenzou. What would her mark be? Would it be his words, or someone else’s? If they were soulmates, would she confront him immediately, or wait until morning?

“Something wrong, sempai?” Tenzou said softly from the other bed.

“Nothing. Bad dream.”

“You haven’t been to sleep. Are you worried about what Sakura’s mark will turn out to be?”

_Damn his highly selective perceptiveness._

“Don’t worry, sempai. I’m sure Naruto will be able to cope no matter what her mark is.”

_Bless his highly selective perceptiveness._

In the morning, Sakura came down dressed in the standard chuunin uniform, long-sleeved shirt and long pants and vest. Naruto greeted Sakura with his usual over-the-top “Ohayo Sakura-chan!” but it was with an uncharacteristic tension, a hoping-against-hope.

“I’m sorry, Naruto,” she said in reply to the unasked question. “I only have one and it isn’t you.”

Naruto blinked, and self-consciously rubbed at the place where the words _are you staring at my forehead too?_ are written on his arm. Naruto had an unprecedented problem: he not only had more than one soulmate, which was unusual but not unheard of, he had a huge number of them, covering almost every part of his skin. That wasn’t the problem—the problem was that many of the people whose words were etched into his skin were known, and none of them matched back. Even Hinata, whom anyone would have suspected to have been a slamdunk for ordering her fate around Naruto, had the words, “I’m sorry, we only have tickets left for the Sunday matinee” running like a marquee across her upper back.

“T-that’s alright, Sakura-chan! I didn’t really expect it—nobody else matches either so—not a problem -ttebayo!”

Sakura walked up to him and hugged him, freezing his fake laugh. He buried his face in the collar of her vest and hugged her back tightly.

“I’m really sorry,” she said again. “It would be so much easier if it were you, Naruto. But it must mean something, right?”

“It’s not enough.” If Kakashi didn’t possess especially keen hearing, he wouldn’t have been able to catch Naruto’s murmur into her shoulder.

Kakashi, who had risen early and eaten before anyone else so as to not have to worry about his mask, cleared his throat. Sakura looked over and met his eye with ease; his voice was similarly easy and unaffected. “Can we be ready to go in ten minutes?”

“Hai, taichou.”

“Hai dattebayo!”

“Hai, sempai.”


	2. Chapter 2

It’s fitting, somehow, that one of the few things that Sasuke actually learned from him would be the cause of so much pain and misery.

If Kakashi had been even a few seconds later—if he had been forced to watch the life fade from another girl’s eyes while the crackle of electricity and the scent of ozone filled the air—if he had had to know, once again, just how responsible he was—he would have killed himself, he was sure of it. He would have hunted down Sasuke first, certainly, but then he would have joined his father’s corpse in the dishonoured section of the Konoha cemetery.

“Sakura… you must let me shoulder this burden. It is mine to carry.”

_Mine to carry, as I will carry how close you have come to death because of my failures, as I already carry so many deaths, to the end of my days—_

And yet she had tried to kill Sasuke again, and failed again, saved this time by Naruto, the soulmate who was not her soulmate.

Naruto had pulled open his shirt, almost literally baring his soul to Sasuke in his plea, but the response was a sneer.

“You think it matters, your soulmate? You think a soulmate brings happiness?” Sasuke laughed at Naruto, just before he left with Tobi and Zetsu.

Kakashi watched with his peripheral vision the twisting of Sakura’s face. _So Sasuke is your soulmate… and I thought you couldn’t do worse than me… poor girl._

———

When he first saw Sakura with her right sleeve ripped off, he didn’t really have time or focus to scrutinize it. After all, they were in battle for the fate of the entire planet with a goddess.

All he could think, actually, when that right arm made connection with the back of Kaguya’s skull, was what a beautiful picture they made, a pink-haired fury framed by a golden boy and a dark avenger…

_I really love you guys right now!_

It was difficult to manage a subdued deflection of the Sage of Six Paths’ compliments of him, when all he wanted to do was collapse and mourn all that had been lost, all the hatred and revenge causing more hatred and revenge. Sakura’s deceptively slight shoulders the only thing keeping him upright, despite all that she had undergone as well.

It was too good to be true that Naruto had finally ended it all.

Really too good to be true.

He couldn’t stop him. He couldn’t even walk. He felt like vomiting as Sakura pleaded with tears in her eyes for Sasuke to turn back from his path of destruction. As she told him of her love, and offered her dedication.

Sasuke’s response to her appeal of love was attack.

Kakashi had no way to know what Sakura was seeing inside the genjutsu, but from her expression and the tremor in her body, to call it unpleasant was an understatement. Yet there was nothing he could do other than scold his former student.

"Well... I have no reason to love or be loved by her."

No reason? He was almost unable to respond to this. Was hatred really the default in his universe? To the point that uninvited concern required a violent response?

When Naruto and Sasuke left, he forced himself to her side, rolling her gently onto her back, and brushing a tear from her cheek.

“Love is such a complex thing,” said the Sage of Six Paths, looking down on them.

Kakashi could hear that he continued to talk, but he couldn’t understand the words. The only words he was looking at were the ones running down the inside of her arm, visible despite the acid damage.

_How to put this… my first impression of you three is… I hate you._

Exactly the size and shape of his own soulmark, starting just below her wrist and running towards her elbow.

He couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.

How could her soulmate be a broken down man like this?

———

She startled awake, as if experiencing a sudden violent end in a nightmare. He was sitting a little back from where he had propped her up, unable to leave her, but also unwilling to let himself touch her anymore.

Sakura slowly looked around—at him, at the landscape, at her acid-burned arm with its unflattering phrase.

She rubbed it self-consciously and looked back into his eyes.

“If I had known you would have to wear them permanently,” he said, “I would have been more careful in my word choice.”

“‘Gomen nasai, sensei,’ isn’t all that much better.”

“At least I don’t have it on my arm. You can’t even wear short sleeves without letting everyone know your soulmate’s a jerk.” There. The word was said.

She looked down at the writing and gave a twisted smile. “He’s not exactly a jerk.”

“Have we met?”

She laughed, and then sobered as a distant rumble of an explosion reminded them that the battle was ongoing. “Well, it could have been worse.”

“But you love him.”

“Yes,” she said hoarsely, drawing her knees up to her chest. “Even after this. After everything… he’s told me and shown me, over and over, how little he thinks of me, how little he thinks of anyone, but I still… I remember… who he was, who he was _becoming_ , before Orochimaru, and how we…” She wipes her eyes on her knees. “The mark means I’m going to get over it, but I don’t see how. I’m so _stupid._ ”

“You’ve got a healer’s heart and you put yourself last.”

Sakura didn’t respond, and there was silence for a minute or so as she stared blankly ahead of her and Kakashi looked towards the rumbling, flashing horizon.

“Could you hold me?”

That brought his attention back to her in a snap.

“I’m cold,” she added, still looking at an invisible point in front of her. It was actually fairly warm but Kakashi didn’t give a damn whether she it was an excuse or not. He sat next to her and pulled her into his arms.

 _This feels right_ , he wanted to say, and, _Is this really alright?_ , and, _I’m sorry you’re going to be stuck with me,_ and, _I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,_ and, _I’m sorry that I’m worth nothing now that I don’t have the Sharingan,_ and, _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry._

He didn’t say anything.

———

When Kakashi and Sakura finally dared to approach the now silent valley, they found them near the crushed remains of the founders’ statues. Naruto, missing an arm and covered with healing burns and lacerations, was lying next to Sasuke’s body, which was also missing an arm and a good portion of the torso. Blood trails indicated that both of them had dragged themselves closer together while Sasuke was still alive.

Naruto struggled to a sitting position at their approach and gave them a weak, watery smile. “I-I kept my promise, Sakura-chan. Before he… before he died…” The ragged sleeve of his one good arm wiped away some tears. “He died as… as… as my friend…”

“You did it, Naruto,” Sakura agreed, crying as well. “You brought him home. Let me heal you now.”

In the distance, thundering roars and screeches indicated that the tailed beasts were shrugging off Sasuke’s genjutsu now that he was dead.

“No, Sakura-chan, Kurama’s… I’ll be fine dattebayo, you gotta… you gotta take Sasuke’s Rinnegan… give it… give it to Kakashi-sensei so we can free everybody.”

The operation was simple for someone of Sakura’s medical calibre. He and Naruto made the rat hand seal together.

As the tree collapsed, Naruto huddled away from them, rubbing at the spot over his heart; Sasuke’s first words to him must be there, Kakashi thought.

Sasuke’s own chest—what was left of it—looked blank. Kakashi’s gaze drifted down and he saw that Sasuke’s sandals were both taken off and set to the side, and the leg wrappings on one leg were partially unwrapped—clearly something that had been done deliberately, not ripped in battle. And there it was, just above the ankle.

_Hello otouto._

———

Naruto didn’t go back with them to the others, saying that he needed to spend some time on Mount Myoboku thinking about things.

“But don’t worry, Kaka-sensei! I’ll be back to take the Hokage title from you before you know it dattebayo!” It was forced cheer, but the unextinguishable light of Naruto was still there lending colour to it.

Kakashi had the unpleasant task of carrying Sasuke’s corpse back.

It was a strange celebratory atmosphere, with the masses overjoyed, but the inner circle of those close to Naruto subdued and concerned.

Kakashi and Sakura attended a meeting with the Five Kage, the surviving commanders and captains, and Killer B, to discuss what should be done with Sasuke’s Sharingan.

Ultimately, in a blind vote, the majority voted to destroy it.

Kakashi had simply said that Naruto was going on a journey to think about things. Nobody mentioned that this was technically going AWOL and therefore basis for missing-nin status. Nobody wanted to name the saviour of the world a criminal. Anyway, it wasn’t like anyone in the world was a match for Naruto now.

When they broke off, before the long journeys home began, Gaara maneuvered himself into a semi-private audience with Kakashi—Sakura was by his side, but Gaara merely glanced at her and showed no concern. “Hatake-taichou. Do you know where Naruto went?”

“I think Naruto wanted to be alone for a while, Kazekage-sama.”

“But I never—” The usually stoic man was clearly struggling to hold something back. “If he contacts you… tell him I have something to show him now that the war is over. Something _important._ ”

“I will.”

After Gaara left, Sakura moved closer to Kakashi and whispered, “I wasn’t there when Naruto met Gaara for the first time, but I’ve seen all of Naruto’s soulmarks and I can’t imagine Gaara saying any of the unidentified ones back then… and I think Naruto would have asked Gaara himself if there were any possibility. Naruto wants it so badly…”

“Maybe it’s about something else.”

“Do you think so?”

Kakashi really did not think so.

They were able to make Konoha by nightfall, since it was the closest to the battlefield. Sakura was by his side silently throughout the entire journey and only when his exhausted hands were already in the process of forming the seals to open his apartment door did he realize that she was still there.

No, that wasn’t the right way to put it. The problem wasn’t that he didn’t know that she was there; the problem was that he didn’t remember that she _shouldn’t_ be there.

“Sakura. Shouldn’t you go home?”

She hesitated, then spoke forcefully. “I don’t want to be apart from you anymore.”

Kakashi stared at her dirty, exhausted face and found himself entirely unable to come up with an argument against what he wanted himself.

He switched on the light and stared at the single large bed, and then at the bathroom where the shower was visible through frosted glass. “It’s… really a one person apartment.” He gestured vaguely at the glass.

“I’m too tired to care. I need to wash my hair _immediately!_ ”

Kakashi smiled, but he refused to be too tired to care. At least, not about this particular thing. He wanted, for once in his life, to actually get something right. So he turned his back to the bathroom, stripped off his shirt, sat down at the foot of the bed and leaned back, facing the door.

The sounds of Sakura’s shower must have lulled him to sleep, because the next thing he knew she was shaking his shoulder gently. He was awkwardly flopped onto the floor. He blinked up at her and realized that his hitai-ate must have slipped off when he slumped over, because he was staring at her with both his normal eye and the Rinnegan. The rush of information about her chakra and tenketsu points was overwhelming. He closed that eye and looked at her again. She was wearing one of his sleeveless shirts, the mask portion pooling around her neck like a cowl, and a pair of boxers that she had twisted the band and tied off with a rubber band in order to keep them on her much more slender hips. 

“You should wash," she said.

“I’m too tired to wash.”

She crossed her arms. “I could wash you? I do sponge baths at the hospital all—”

“I can wash.” He stood up as she laughed at him, and he smiled a little again.

The shower felt absolutely blissful. He actually was able to let himself think nothing of substance. He read the back of the shampoo bottle and contemplated what a tea tree was and what effects its oil could possibly have in the thirty seconds the goo spent in his hair before he rinsed it out.

When he got out of the bathroom, dried off and in similar attire, she was in his bed, asleep, curled up on the far edge. The blanket on the near side had been carefully turned back.

He thought about sleeping on the floor, but decided that would be ridiculous grandstanding. Kakashi climbed into the invited place. Exhaustion carried him off to sleep without difficulty.

At some point before dawn he awoke. The combination of the darkness and the sensory input from the Rinnegan was disorienting, and it took him a bit to realize that he was in his own bed, and why he had a Rinnegan instead of a Sharingan. His chest tightened. Yet another eye taken from an Uchiha he had failed. He had failed Itachi too… and it had been Obito who was really behind the coup and the massacre… in fact, wasn’t he in some way responsible for wiping out the entire clan? And yet here he was, alive, with the last remaining example of the pinnacle of their dojutsu. He reached up to his face and pulled down his mask, feeling a need for air, and gulped it in.

Kakashi heard weeping. He wondered how far gone he really was for a moment before he realized that it wasn’t coming from him, but rather from another person in the bed. Sakura.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffled. “Did I wake you?”

He opened his arms and let her roll into them, not sure whether he was offering comfort more than seeking it. As her sobs subsided, he decided it didn’t matter. His words on her arm pressed up against her words on his chest.

“I’m here. Go back to sleep,” he told her and himself.

He awoke mid-morning and opened his eyes to see Sakura still lying on top of him, staring up at him with her eyes like saucers. After a night of sleep, he was better able to adjust to the Rinnegan vision and since this was going to be his new normal, he decided to keep the eye open. “What? Is it the eye?”

“You took your mask off,” she whispered.

He stopped his hand in the act of twitching up to touch his face. That would be stupid. “Ah. Yes.”

“You have a mole.”

That was her big reaction? He couldn’t help feeling a bit miffed. “I’m aware. I prefer to think of it as a beauty mark.”

“It looks nice,” she said, and then reddened. Before he could tease her, she rushed on, “So why do you hide it?”

“I’ve been wearing this mask longer than you’ve been alive.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He didn’t say anything, and she sat up, looking frustrated.

“We’ve got through so much together—literally travelled to other dimensions together—but I don’t know that much about you,” she said. “You’ve always warded me off.”

“I ward everyone off.”

“Mm. The masked man. Always mysterious. Even on that first day, when you introduced yourself, all you told us was your name.”

“You didn’t tell me much when you introduced yourself either, if I recall correctly. ‘The thing I like is…’” He pitched his voice in a falsetto and then squealed, and she poked at him with a lightly chakra enhanced finger flick, enough to sting. “Ow!”

“Serves you right. Well, how about you introduce yourself for real this time.”

“Alright.” He gave a lazy wave. “Yo. I’m Hatake Kakashi. I like miso soup with eggplant and getting a rise out of people.” 

He paused with a grin when Sakura snorted, rolling her eyes and muttering, “Figures.”

“I don’t like sweets and fried food, and… I don’t like it when my comrades get hurt, especially if it’s my fault,” he continued. Her face turned serious at that. “My hobby is reading. And my dream… is for children not to know war.”

“That’s a good dream,” Sakura said quietly.

“Alright, your turn.”

“What? But you know all about me already. Unlike you, I wear my heart on my sleeve.” She said it with dissatisfaction.

“I know. It may not be a typical shinobi trait, but I like that about you. Still, I have a feeling I don’t know everything, so go ahead.”

“Well, I feel silly, but ok.” She waved both hands with exaggerated flair and he smirked. “Hello, my name is Haruno Sakura. I love sweets and fried food, and seeing my patients get better. I don’t like spicy food.” She paused, then continued, “I really don’t like it when I can’t keep up with my comrades. My hobby… reading books, but not the same kind as you.”

“Oh? I seem to remember you having a very interesting reaction to one of Naruto’s jutsus against Kaguya…”

She blushed. “That didn’t mean anything! I was just surprised!” 

“You know they have an entire section for that kind of thing at Pink Bookstore—”

“ _I said it didn’t mean anything!_ ”

“Alright. But if one of my copies of _Icha Icha_ goes mysteriously missing…”

“Kakashi!”

This time he blocked her finger deftly. “I’m just saying I wouldn’t look too hard for it.”

“Hmph.”

Kakashi paused for a moment, and then prompted, “And your dream?”

“My dream… I don’t know what my dream is now.”

“What was it?”

She sighed but said nothing.

“It’s alright if it was about Sasuke.”

She sighed again. “Didn’t I say you knew all about me already? Yes, it was for Sasuke-kun to come back and be happy. I guess it was stupid for me to have a dream that was totally out of my control.”

“Isn’t that what makes it a dream?”

She looked out the window. Birds were singing and the sun was bright. “Do you want to go out to eat?”

He pointed out her less than ideal attire, and they agreed that he would get take out while she ran her war clothes through the wash. While he was contemplating take-out choices on his stroll, a couple of ANBU appeared before him in a swirl of leaves.

“Kakashi-taichou, good morning,” greeted one wearing an eagle mask.

“Maa, the war’s over, Eagle-san.” He smiled brightly.

“Kakashi-sensei—”

“That’s long over as well.”

“ _Hatake-san._ Hokage-sama wants you immediately.”

“I’ve got a lady in my apartment waiting for me to come back and satisfy her hunger,” Kakashi said blandly.

Eagle-san’s bear-masked companion guffawed, and Eagle-san said dryly, “I’ve got a lady in the Hokage Tower waiting for me to come back and give her what _she_ wants, which is you. I think you’ll find disappointing _that_ lady is much worse for your health and happiness.”

“You might be surprised,” muttered Kakashi, but he was still a Konoha ninja after all, and damnably loyal even after everything. 

“Kakashi.” Tsunade looked as fresh as if nothing at all extraordinary had occurred in the last few days, no doubt thanks to her jutsu. “You know why I’ve taken time away from the hospital to meet with you, don’t you?”

Kakashi tried to make his posture look as lazy and irresponsible as possible. “Do you want my opinion on choosing your successor, Hokage-sama?”

“Is your opinion that you should be the successor?”

“Respectfully, no.”

A vein on her forehead twitched a little. “Why not?”

“You won’t think the reason is good enough. I’m old and tired.”

“Old and tired! What are you, thirty? You’re a young man! Do you know how old I was when I took this job?”

Kakashi dared an eye crinkle. “You look and act younger than thirty even now, Hokage-sama.”

She smiled a little despite her obvious desire to be in a rage. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Kakashi! Anyway, you’re right that the reason is nonsense. You’re young. Without the Sharingan draining you you’ll find your energy vastly exceeds what it was, and you’re certainly strong enough to be the Hokage now that you have the Rinnegan. What’s more, don’t think I don't know you were the universally agreed upon choice to succeed me when I was unconscious— _and_ you agreed to it.” Upon finishing this litany, she took a breath, and her expression softened, becoming almost maternal. “I know you don't want this job, Kakashi, but I’ve done my stint and now it’s your turn to keep the seat warm for that brat—for when he comes back.”

Kakashi didn’t want to say that he had a real fear that Naruto never would come back for good—not without something keeping him here, without a _someone_ keeping him here. If the village were ever in danger, of course, he’d be back in a flash, but Kakashi suspected that the young man was grappling with an identity crisis. He had gained what had always been his dream—the acknowledgement of everyone—but found that it wasn’t enough to be something to everyone unless he was also everything to someone.

“Well?” Tsunade barked at him, and he realized that he’d just been standing there stupidly. “Can you suggest anyone else? Anyone at all?”

That was the other problem. Shikaku could have done it—if he had lived; Asuma might have grown into it—ditto; his mind ran rapidly over the ranks of possibilities, but there were even fewer possibilities now than the last time he had to make this choice, and so the same conclusion was obvious: accept the job.

“I’ll accept the position,” he said, “pending the agreement of the jounin.”

“Excellent. Now I need to get back to the hospital. Oh, that reminds me, Kakashi. Do you know where Sakura is? She didn’t go to her home with her parents, because the messenger bird couldn’t find her there. I could use Katsuyu to find her, of course, but I thought she might have gone somewhere for privacy. You were with her at the end—did she mention any plans?”

“I’m not sure of her plans. I was picking up food to have lunch with her when you summoned me.”

The Hokage looked relieved. “Ah, good. Tell her to come in for a shift if she possibly can after she’s eaten. There are still some delicate cases we’re dealing with.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama.”


	3. Chapter 3

When he finally got back to his apartment with the take-out, Sakura was sitting at his desk, looking a little too relaxed.

“I got yakitori,” he said, holding up the bags full of boxes.

“Did you have to kill the chicken first?”

He smiled at her as he set down the boxes. If she wanted to tease, then he could tease back. “Were you bored?”

“Of course I was bored!”

He untied the knot in a plastic bag and pulled out a container of rice. “How curious. You didn’t enjoy the book?”

Her fingers froze for the briefest of moments in the act of untying the other bag, but it was more than enough to confirm his suspicion that she had succumbed to the temptation of reading _Icha Icha_. He began to laugh, and she pouted and blushed. “Idiot! I was just curious! I didn’t _read_ it!”

“Which one _didn’t_ you read?”

She had picked up _Paradise_ , and as they ate lunch, they discussed the book. At first Sakura adamantly stuck to her story that she hadn’t done more than briefly flip through the pages and sneer. Kakashi ignored this and spoke as if she wasn’t denying having read it at all. He chose to focus on the first chapter’s rapturous description of the beaches of the Land of Water, rather than using it as an opportunity to needle her about the smutty parts. She cautiously made an ambiguous statement that could have been construed as an admittance to having read it, and when he didn’t pounce on it to tease her, she gradually fell into a conversation that made it clear that she had.

It was _comfortable_. He’d lived alone since he was a young boy and had always found solitude the best part of going home, but with her it was different.

She made a joke about Junko’s “two big reasons” why the double agent should become a triple agent, and Kakashi giggled. Sakura laughed. “I can’t believe the mighty Copy Ninja has such a perverted giggle.”

Since it was her, he turned his head at a dramatic angle, narrowed his eyes, and said in his suavest voice—the one he used to get Tenzou to pick up the cheque—“It’s called gap moe, Sakura-chan. It’s very unusual and attractive.”

Now _she_ was the one giggling. “Mm. I’ve been told I’m a tsundere type, although I don’t think I’m cold, do you?”

“No.” That simple denial, and the way he said it, veered the conversation towards serious matters.

Sakura fidgeted with her little pile of empty yakitori sticks. “Do you think that soulmarks cause us to connect to a person? Or were we fated to be with them, and the soulmark just reflects that?”

“I don’t know if I like either option,” he said quietly. “Either way… if it was already known when you were just a toddler the first words you would say to me… it makes me wonder how much control we really have…”

“Some people think it’s comforting that what happens is what’s meant to happen. Although you don’t strike me as that type.”

He stared at a chip in the edge of the desk that served as his table. “To me it seems like trying to escape responsibility for my mistakes.”

“I tried to tell myself that it was romantic, fighting fate.”

Kakashi looked up and saw that she was staring out the window. She continued, “When I was twelve and you told me you didn’t want to know me, it totally crushed me, you know? You were so disgusted with the idea of me being your soulmate that you had to eliminate the _one in a thousand chance_ , you said. And the way you looked at me. Brrr.” She shivered.

His heart dropped. “I’m sor—”

“No, I didn’t tell you that to make you feel guilty. Everything crushed me when I was twelve. Poor Kurenai-sensei, dealing with me _and_ Hinata-chan. The sheltered little romantic and the quivering failed heiress. At least she had Shino to keep things steady.” She smiled and shook her head. “What I mean is, I think part of why I latched on so hard to the idea of saving Sasuke-kun is that he _wasn’t_ my soulmate—so I was totally disinterested in my pursuit, right? And that would convince him somehow that my love was genuine? Pure, or something… but it was his brother the whole time… poor Sasuke-kun… that’s what he meant when he said a soulmate didn’t bring happiness… he and his brother had their worst suffering because of their love for each other…”

She fiddled with the sticks again. Kakashi didn't know what to say.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I get it,” she said at last. “When I was twelve I couldn’t understand why anyone would reject a soulmate. When I turned sixteen I knew enough to realize life was a lot more complicated… that shinobi like you have been through horrible things… I know enough to know how much I don’t know, I guess. Although…”

Sakura suddenly looked directly into his eyes with her clear green ones. “…I do want to know more. Like… the one you thought was your soulmate… and everything about you…”

He laughed uncomfortably. “Everything might take a while.”

“As long as you need,” she said seriously.

Time to change the subject. “Your parents are probably worried about you.”

“Mm. They don’t understand what it’s like, this kind of life. My mother never even tried for the chuunin exams, and my father gave up after four tries. Said he knew by then he’d never pass and he might get himself killed. I don’t think they ever expected me to go beyond genin… although they say they’re very proud…”

“Of the second Tsunade?”

She blushed, but he was pleased that she didn’t try to deny the appellation. “Yeah, well. It’s… hard, you know? I remember one time my mother was lecturing me about not doing the dishes when I had just come back from us saving the Kazekage. I remember looking at her and not hearing her at all. I was thinking that if I wanted to, with just a flick of my finger I could kill her, and not only couldn't she stop me, she wouldn’t even see it coming. It… it scared me. Not the idea that I _would_ do such a horrible thing, of course—but that I had surpassed my parents so thoroughly that they were little more than ants. How could I rely on ants for guidance?”

“Dangerous words,” said Kakashi. “Similar things have been said about the daimyos, you know.”

Her eyes widened. “I never even thought of that…” That didn’t surprise him. She was clever, but not all devious or rebellious.

“Just be careful whom you talk like that around. With all the devastation and casualties from this war, there will be power vacuums and resource shortages. Even with unprecedented peace between the Kages.”

She nodded. “I’ll remember. But the point is… it was hard enough then… but now? How can I go back to that?”

He could have tried to play dumb and asked if she wanted to find her own place, but it would just be prolonging the inevitable. “You want to stay with me.”

“I think… regardless of whether it’s predestined or not… we can only act as if our choices matter… and I think soulmates are supposed to be together.”

He’d been thinking of this on the walk back with the food. “I have a house, actually.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Out in the old clans district, where Pain’s attack didn’t do much. It’s habitable. You… could have your own room.”

They both knew very well that she wouldn’t be sleeping in her own room.

“Oh, and Tsunade-sama told me to tell you to come in for a shift if you can.”

She sighed and stood up. “I’d better do that then. So… I’ll see you tonight? For dinner?”

He nodded and gave her his signature wave as she climbed out his window and off across the rooftops.

———

Kakashi spent the day preparing his father’s house.

Cleaning it was a strange and disorienting thing. He hadn’t done these tasks since he was a small child. With his ability to produce shadow clones, it was no trouble at all to get the place shining. Other shadow clones moved in his current possessions (with the aid of sealing scrolls for the larger objects) and purchased the necessary items to fill a much larger dwelling. This was his first real opportunity to test his chakra consumption without the constant drain of even the unused sharingan, and it was a marvel. He felt like Rock Lee must have felt when he dropped off the weights at the Chuunin Exams.

When everything was done, he summoned Pakkun.

“Find Sakura and show her how to get to my house.”

The ninken tilted his head. “Your house?”

“Yes. We’re going to be living here now.”

“You and Floral Green?”

“Right.”

“Good choice. I thought humans usually—”

“I don’t want commentary, I want Sakura.”

“Right,” said the dog, in a tone Kakashi didn’t much care for, but at least the dog left for his task without any further remarks.

Kakashi entered the house, settled himself into the comfortable armchair he had purchased for the living room, and with a wince, dismissed all the clones.

As he expected, he received all their experiences of physical labour at once, and while it wasn’t unbearable for someone in his condition, it was still enough to leave him mentally and physically drained. He hoped Sakura wouldn’t mind being the one to get dinner.

Sakura was bright and cheerful when she arrived, marvelled at the work that could be done with shadow clones, and had thoughtfully stopped at the market to buy a multipack of instant ramen bowls, disposable chopsticks, and a kettle, since she didn’t expect Kakashi to be able to fully appoint the house. She laughingly brought over an end table so he didn’t have to get up to eat his ramen. “Naruto would be so proud of us,” she said.

They ate in contented silence. When they had finished, Kakashi tiredly suggested watching television and told her she could watch whatever. Sakura stretched and said she’d rather just take a shower and go to sleep.

He was already asleep when he awoke to his door sliding open. Sakura didn’t bother trying to creep in; she knew he would be awake. Her hair was still damp, pulled back in a loose ponytail, and she was wearing a t-shirt and pants.

Kakashi lifted up the duvet as she clambered into the bed and directly into his arms, settling her arm onto the writing on his chest with a little sigh. He drifted back into sleep.

———

The first month passed fairly calmly. Sakura worked overtime at the hospital, but managed to squeeze in enough time to purchase herself a sensible desk and office chair; bookshelves, soon groaning under the weight of medical volumes; and a very frilly little daybed that looked much more like a sofa than a place to sleep. She also saw Ino as much as possible. The new Yamanaka clan head had little time to mourn her father’s death amid her new responsibilities, and Sakura wanted to be a person with whom Ino was free to break down.

As the next Hokage, though it had not been formally announced, Kakashi spent his time shadowing Tsunade as she and the other Kage discussed developments.

The Tsuchikage was raising a fuss about the balance of power, now that only Kumo and Konoha had jinchuuriki. He wanted concessions. The Mizukage, who was always out for all she could get, was quick to fall in with this, and while the Kazekage was mostly silent, he did not oppose the idea. It was looking like developing a treaty that everyone could agree to sign was going to be quite a lengthy ordeal. Kakashi liked the idea of becoming Hokage less and less.

In the snatches of time that they could spend together, Kakashi and Sakura sparred, read books and watched television in companionable silence, and discussed the books and the television. Kakashi was present at a joint celebration for Shikamaru and Sakura’s elevation to jounin rank, where he found himself stuck between the characteristically quiet Neji and the uncharacteristically silent Kiba, who obviously hadn’t even begun to get over the loss of Akamaru.

The daybed was never slept in, although did keep her clothes in her room. All that occurred beneath Kakashi’s shuriken duvet was sleep and reassuring embraces, when one or the other awoke with a nightmare.

Kakashi wasn’t exactly sure what they were to one another. _Soulmates_ , yes, of course; but what other word was there? Friends—but did friends sleep embracing? Lovers—he was deeply _attracted_ to her, including physically, yet he did not want to have sex with her; he wasn’t sure what she felt about him in that way, but she had never initiated anything either. Comrades—like friends, it didn’t go far enough. Brother and sister—Kakashi had never had a sister but he doubted brothers were supposed to feel this way about younger sisters. Master and student—of course there were fourteen years of age between them, and he’d been on battlefields at the age of seven, so the experience gap was there, and he could not help but feel it sometimes; but she had literally held the heart of their only hope in her hand and compelled it to keep beating. His power to destroy was worse than worthless compared to her power to save. Kakashi wished she would never have to learn anything from him.

He brooded about it sometimes when alone, but he never brought it up with Sakura. Whatever it was, this connection, it was something both of them needed desperately. The potential of losing it was too horrible to risk.

The banality came to an abrupt end on a Saturday morning. It started out innocently enough: Sakura and Kakashi were grocery shopping. The market was buzzing with life. Kakashi was holding open a bag for Sakura to drop their newly purchased oranges into when he heard a woman saying loudly, “So, _this_ is your friend?!”

They both turned. Kakashi saw a woman ten or fifteen years older than himself with short hair staring at him with anger.

“Kakashi-taichou _is_ my friend, mother,” Sakura said. “I didn’t lie to you.”

“You _knew_ I assumed you meant Ino-chan,” Sakura’s mother hissed. Her eyes darted back to Kakashi and she raised her voice loud enough for everyone around to hear. “So it _is_ true. You scum! Everyone knows you’re a pervert, but I didn’t think you’d play around with vulnerable girls half your age. Just because you’re a war hero doesn’t mean you can treat my daughter like a whore! I’m going straight to the Hokage with this.”

The woman turned and rushed off with the speed of someone who was obviously a shinobi herself. Sakura dropped the oranges (they fell into the bag, but only because she had frozen with them over the bag to begin with) and chased after her.

Kakashi body flickered back to their home—to his house, at least; who knew what Sakura was going to decide after she talked to her mother. He was confused and troubled by the revelation that Sakura had not told her parents—and likely, anyone—that she was moving in with him. “I wear my heart on my sleeve,” she’d said, and he had agreed completely; so why this secrecy? 

Kakashi hadn’t gone out of his way to tell anyone about their new ambiguous domestic arrangement, but that was consistent with his personality. He had even mentioned it to Tenzou. His junior, looking as haunted and miserable as he had ever since the end of the war, had greeted his sempai in the Konoha interrogation rooms where he was part of the rotation of specialists there to react to any attempt from Orochimaru, Kabuto, or Karin to escape before their trials. The Uzumaki had been deemed under Konoha’s domain due to Whirlpool’s destruction and her clan’s association with the Leaf, whereas Suigetsu had been handed over to Kiri and Juugo to Kumo; the latter had probably already been executed by now, knowing the Raikage’s attitude.

With uncharacteristic vulnerability, Tenzou had made a comment to the effect that he wasn’t sure if anyone even remembered he existed unless they needed his wood powers. Kakashi had told him that just the previous night Sakura had woken up from a nightmare where he had died and had been very upset by it. Tenzou’s already enormous eyes had widened further in pleasant surprise, but then narrowed as he asked how Kakashi would know that, as if suspecting Kakashi of making it up. Kakashi had said matter-of-factly that she was living with him.

Was Sakura ashamed of him?

Or perhaps it was a misguided attempt to shield him from the kind of consequences that had just exploded all over the market square.

He put away the few things he had acquired. Just as he was about to see about some laundry to pass the time, a message arrived by bird from the Hokage.

“Kakashi,” Tsunade thundered at him without preamble as soon as he entered the room. “Is it true that you’re sleeping with Sakura?!”

“Maa…” It had never sounded more like a bleat. “Strictly speaking yes, Hokage-sama, but—”

He registered the incoming attack, attempted to dodge, was struck in the Byakugan blind spot by something, and lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments would be appreciated because I'm in that zone now where I am completely unable to evaluate the quality of my own work.
> 
> This is a very different Kakashi than I usually write... I don't know if I want to say if he's OOC or my usual Kakash is OOC... more that there are multiple interpretations possible based on canon actions.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Matilda (an artist with no website, sadly, who hangs out in KakaSaku LINE chat) made some truly amazing fanart for "Your Most Important Person" which I have posted on my Tumblr [here](http://fineillsignup.tumblr.com/post/154133499083/matilda-an-artist-who-doesnt-have-a-tumblr-but) and [here.](http://fineillsignup.tumblr.com/post/154146786083/sorry-sakura-but-youre-twelve-and-he-has) Six full colour with background images of sad ANBU Kakashi discovering his soulmark, and a four panel illustration of the scene where Kakashi tells 12-year-old Sakura to leave him alone. Truly can't believe that my writing inspired such beauty! Don't miss looking at it!

Kakashi came back to consciousness to the sounds of a heated argument between Sakura and Tsunade.

“—a right to decide for myself,” Sakura was saying. He could feel her chakra under his skin.

“You may think you’re in love with him, but I’ve been in your position before, Sakura. You lose the one you love, you see him die in front of you—it makes you vulnerable. I can understand why you would lose your head. _”_

“Don’t tell me how I feel, shishou. If this is a mistake, then it’s my mistake to make. You certainly never tried to tell me I was wrong to be in love with Sasuke-kun, and he tried to kill me! What’s so wrong with Kakashi in comparison to that?”

There was a long silence, then he heard Tsunade’s voice from directly above his head. “I know you’re awake, brat. You have some explaining to do.”

He opened his eyes and attempted a weak smile at her murderous face. “Hai, Hokage-sama.”

“Don’t you think you’re a little too old to be playing with girls her age? I’ve never seen you play around with women at all. Mid-life crisis?” That was a low dig, coming from her, especially after she was at such pains to call thirty young.

“I don’t intend to play around with her, Hokage-sama. I think if you take a look at my left side—”

“No!” said Sakura, but Tsunade was already impatiently ripping open his vest to pull up the shirt beneath.

Tsunade ran her finger along the writing which had once been pink but deepened to red over the years. “And he’s yours as well, Sakura?”

“That’s nobody’s business but ours. I don’t want us to _get away_ with anything just because we’re soulmates. If people can’t accept our relationship without knowing that, that’s their problem.”

“If your relationship isn’t accepted by the people of the village,” retorted Tsunade, “and because of that the jounin fail to elect Kakashi as Hokage, that is very much _my_ problem.”

“That should do it, Kakashi,” Sakura told him, and started to turn back to Tsunade, but he grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly.

“Hokage-sama, as you know, I didn’t want to be Hokage to begin with. Without Sakura’s support, I don’t know else how I could cope with being Hokage. I don’t like sake.”

Tsunade smirked despite herself. “You always were a sassy brat. You may look like Sakumo, but  you’ve got your mother’s defiance.” She sighed. “Well. I had hoped to have you installed by the end of the year, Kakashi, but I’ll have to delay that until I see how this plays out. For my sake, at least pretend to be model citizens.” The Sannin reached out and touched Sakura’s shoulder. “Come and talk with me a little privately before you go?”

Kakashi watched them walk off, stretched, and retrieved his possessions from the pockets of his ruined flak jacket. There wasn’t much, so he was able to stow it away in his pants and thigh pouch, especially once he pulled out his copy of _Icha Icha_ and began strolling back towards the clan district.

Superficially absorbed in his book, he deliberately took the busiest streets to observe reactions. Kakashi was certainly an object of curiosity. He didn't see any overt displays of disgust, but there was the small factor that with the help of yet another Uchiha eye, he was quite possibly the second strongest ninja living. He would have to ask Sakura how people reacted to her… among other things.

———

“I’m home,” Sakura called from the front door, a bit of anxiety in her voice.

“Welcome home,” Kakashi called back from the kitchen.

She slunk into the kitchen like a cat that had been previously sprayed with water for playing on the counters. “Lunch smells good…”

“It’s almost ready,” Kakashi answered, turning a page of _Icha Icha_. “You have good timing. Just waiting for the rice cooker to finish.”

Kakashi was able to read another page of the book before Sakura blurted, “I need to apologize to you. And I need to explain.”

He closed the book and stuffed it in his pocket.

“The reason I didn’t tell anyone I moved in with you is… I just didn’t want to have to argue about it. I didn’t know _how_ to argue about it, other than to say 'leave me alone and let me make my own choices, it’s legal and none of your business so back off.’ That line wouldn’t work on my parents. It might have worked on Tsunade-shishou, but would have greatly damaged our relationship.”

“So why not reveal we’re soulmates?”

“Because it’s cheating!”

He raised his eyebrows at her.

“It’s not a reason!”

“Isn't it the reason you gave me for wanting to move in with me? That soulmates are supposed to be together?”

Her mouth opened and closed again. She crossed her arms. “So I'm self-contradictory. Is that such a problem? I'm human!”

Kakashi crossed his own arms and laughed.

Sakura scowled. “Don’t laugh at me!”

“You’re funny, and I’m human too.”

She huffed and turned her face. “The point is, I want something _more_ than that. I know that _we are_ something more than that. But I don’t know what it _is,_ and if even I don’t know, how can I convince other people about it? Especially when people know about how I feel for Sasuke-kun…” Sakura sighed. “So I messed up. I told myself I just needed time to figure it out so that I could tell people. But I just… I just ignored the problem. Tsunade-shishou said it proved I was too immature for this kind of relationship. She thinks we’re having sex of course. Everyone will.”

Kakashi chose to step over that particular exploding seal for now. “But she’s not forbidding you to live here?”

“No. She agrees that legally she doesn’t have any basis to do. There’s no evidence that we had sex before I reached the age of consent—”

“Did she put it that way?” Kakashi interrupted, incredulous. “That’s what she thinks of me? Not that I didn’t do it, but that there’s no _evidence?_ ”

Sakura bit her lip. “She did say something about how she she should have known anyone who read Jiraiya-sama’s books couldn’t be so self-controlled.”

“All of the women in the _Icha Icha_ series are _mature_ ,” Kakashi protested, even more incensed at the insult to his favourite book series than the one to himself. “Junko is already in her twenties in the first book and by the last book—”

It was Sakura’s turn to interrupt. “Kakashi! Relevance.”

“Will this anti- _Icha_ prejudice ever end,” Kakashi muttered.

“Anyway. The only other thing she could possibly prosecute for would be abuse of power, but she says she knows I’m perceptive enough to have known before hand that any relationship between us would have nothing but downsides for my ambitions.”

This was news to Kakashi. “What did she mean by that?”

“Oh, basically that there’s nothing I could get through you that I couldn’t get without you, and that if we were together, all the things I got on my own talents would be popularly attributed to your influence. I think she meant it as a compliment.”

“She wasn’t saying that she was going to stop taking you as a student?”

“Oh no, thankfully. She was steadily drinking as we talked and she got sloppier and sloppier, and by the end she was crying and half-smothering me with her breasts while she hugged me and told me that love was the only important thing in the entire world.”

Kakashi stared at her, speechless with horror.

“I only managed to escape when she passed out on her desk. But the main point is she was never really angry at me, just disappointed _for_ me, and protective of me, and she seems to be getting over it. It helps that she doesn’t seem to think she has any other choice but you for Hokage and she really wants to give up the job.” She hesitated. “I think... you know, Dan always supported her ambitions and dreams, about wanting to revolutionize medicine. If we could show her that you supported me the same way, I’m pretty sure she’d completely approve. I think that’s what separated Jiraiya-sama from Dan for her. She knew perfectly well that Jiraiya-sama loved her sincerely, but he didn’t value what was important to her like Dan did.”

“I hope I will be able to support your dreams,” Kakashi said seriously, “as soon as you figure out what they are.”

The rice cooker clicked to warm. “Yeah, I guess that just means I’m immature again, though, doesn’t it?”

They moved easily together, setting the table and arranging the food for the meal. “Well. There’s one issue that we’ve moved over that I have to admit is a problem for me too. What exactly we are. And if you’re immature for not knowing what this is, I haven’t got the slightest idea of what we are either. I take it you agree we’re more than friends?”

“Yes.”

“But the usual _more than friends_ terms don’t apply.”

“No.”

“So glad that everything is clear now.”

She laughed weakly as they sat down at the table. “At least we’re lost together. Itadakimasu.”

Sakura began to eat, but stopped when she noticed Kakashi was staying perfectly still. At last he said, “It’s just… it’s just that it’s so much better than being lost alone…”

They were mostly quiet as they ate, the silence not as comfortable as usual.

Also unusually, Sakura went to bed first, saying she was very tired, but when he joined her an hour later, he discovered her still awake, sitting on the bed.

“You’ve been crying,” he said, torn between wanting to show his sincere frustration and not wanting to rebuke her. “Why didn’t you call for me?”

“It’s just so unfair,” she whispered. “You spent all that time so alone… fighting all those battles so alone, with all that guilt and pain… waiting for me to grow up, but not even knowing that I was out there, not thinking any help was ever coming at all… that fate made you suffer like this, and even now you can’t bear to tell me most of what you’ve experienced… am I still too young? How much longer do you have to wait?”

Kakashi sat down next to her. “At this point, whatever I don’t tell you isn’t because I think you can’t handle it. I’m still not ready. Even though I know you’re on my side, my ally… you think it’s unfair that I had to wait for a soulmate? I think it’s unfair that your soulmate was already broken before you were born.” He laughed a little. “That even sounds harsh to me.”

She more or less grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug, and because it was Sakura, it was more than a little painful. “Ribs,” he gasped.

After she healed the minor fractures and they were lying down together in their usual sleeping position, she said, “But you know, what you said is the closest word to what we are yet.”

“Hmm?”

“We’re allies.”

“Allies,” he mused. “It is pretty close.”

Her yawn spilled warm breath onto his upper chest. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

———

Surprisingly, the first to make a public declaration of acceptance of their strange bond is Rock Lee.

Kakashi and Sakura were eating dinner at Yakiniku Q a few days after her mother’s public outburst, Sakura ignoring the murmurs and stares with her head held high, Kakashi with his characteristic slouch, when the door burst open. It had been kicked open, in fact; kicked because the kicker had gotten around the lack of a wheelchair ramp by simply carrying the wheelchair above his head. Lee set it back on the ground and pushed Guy’s wheelchair through with zest, announcing, “Table for two, if you please! Anywhere is—oh!”

Almost instantly he was at their tableside. “Kakashi-sensei! I have been waiting for this opportunity!”

Sakura reddened and Kakashi tensed, preparing for Lee to issue him a challenge, but instead he said: “I could never give up my pursuit of Sakura-san for one unworthy of her hand. But to oppose the happiness you give her would be against everything I believe in! Sakura-san!” He turned to her and suddenly dropped to one knee. “Never fear! I shall always love you chastely from afar.”

Back at the hostess stand, Guy had the waterworks flowing. “My so-youthful protege! Graciousness in defeat is the very height of cool!”

“Guy-sensei!” Lee leapt back to his feet, clenching his fists as his own tears began to fall.

“Lee!” Guy held out his hands, and the two embraced, Lee practically sitting in his lap in order to do so.

The hostess coughed. “For two, you said..?”

———

It seemed as if the Lee incident opened the floodgates for the opinions to start pouring in, and to the surprise of them both, they were mostly positive or neutral, and none of the negative opinions came from people Kakashi gave much of a damn about (other than Sakura’s parents, solely for the affect they had upon her). The most disquieting reaction came from Shikamaru:

“She’s your soulmate,” he said loudly and suddenly while they were reading intelligence reports from the old Sound territory that had been annexed by Fire—more of a liability than a spoil of war, as Tsunade had retorted to the Tsuchikage when he asked why Konoha should get it for nothing. Orochimaru’s former prisoners, subordinates, and victims, particularly those with experimental curse seals, were creating enormous problems for the civilians living in the area and nearby countries, attacking people and damaging property.

“Keep your voice down,” said Kakashi. “Is that relevant to the issue of the eviscerated livestock?”

“Sakura wants to keep it a secret?” said Shikamaru at a more reasonable volume.

“She says she doesn’t want people accepting us only for that reason.” Kakashi turned Sai’s unnecessarily lifelike rendering of a cow missing its stomach and intestines over with distaste.

“People _will_ figure it out eventually. I would have figured it out much sooner, except little things she said here and there had everyone assuming it was Sasuke. Her being your soulmate is the only reason that makes sense.”

“Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate your support,” Kakashi said sarcastically.

“I didn’t mean her choosing you. I meant you letting her in.”

That was far too direct of a hit. Kakashi turned his gaze on Shikamaru rather deliberately.

“If I understand correctly, the Rinnegan basically makes you a demi-god,” said the young man irrepressibly. “Sounds like a real drag.”

Kakashi sighed. “Story of my life.”

———

A few weeks after that, Kakashi arrived at the Hokage tower for his usual shift of shadowing Tsunade and assisting her with her work to discover that Sakura was already there, still wearing scrubs.

The Hokage held out a scroll for him. “Please read this.”

The scroll was from the Kazekage, and it went over Suna’s medical problems: the limited capabilities and stunted, old-fashioned practices common prior to the war; the fact that during the war, Suna’s medic-nin corps happened to be particularly hit hard, with an eighty percent loss of life; in particular, the loss of all but one of their herbal experts, and the one they had left wasn’t their best. Suna had been attempting to cope with this crisis internally. However, an accident had just occurred with a team of puppet using genin. A boy had been poisoned—a poison that should have been easily treatable—but the staff initially misdiagnosed it. When it was properly diagnosed, the antidote was found to have been used up in the war and not replenished. The herbal expert had the day off, and by the time he received the summons, returned, and compounded the antidote, the poison had advanced to the point that the boy suffered permanent nerve damage.

The letter spoke of Gaara’s deep personal shame at this incident, which he laid down as being the fault of his own pride in not appealing to his allies for help sooner. Thus he came to the point of the letter: he begged for Konoha to lend Suna one of their capable medic-nin to help alleviate the critical shortage and kickstart a new program.

Ideally, Haruno Sakura.

Kakashi looked up. “Why are you showing this to me, Hokage-sama?”

“Because I want you to know,” she said quietly, “that I am not sending Sakura on a year long mission in order to separate you two.”

His inhale was audible. “A year?”

“That would be my estimate. No less than ten months. At about the eighteen month mark I would start pressing for her to be sent back. They’re offering to pay at A rank scale. They can’t begin to afford that.”

“Sakura is more than worth—”

“Of course she is,” Tsunade snapped. “She is _my_ student, Kakashi. I have already responded with a request for a puppet-using jounin willing and able to train a squad of our genin, with each side providing only room, board, and a modest stipend. Quietly, we will pay Sakura at A rank scale from our budget. Before you ask, we can afford it. We are rather cash flush at the moment, to be honest. We lost about forty percent of our force in the war, and the majority of those had no dependents, more’s the pity. This after losing half our force from the Sand-Sound invasion. Have I shown you the estimated size of the academy class for the children born last year? Five children, Kakashi. _Five._ ” She took a deep breath. “That’s an issue we’ll need to talk about more later. I expect Gaara’s acceptance of my demand at any moment.”

“You really think Suna will so easily share puppet jutsu?”

“They will if they expect to learn any of _my_ teachings. I expect value for value.”

Kakashi turned and looked at Sakura. She took a deep breath. “I’ll miss you.”

“Once the acceptance is received, I’ll expect you to leave immediately,” said Tsunade, pouring herself a cup of sake. “You are hereby discharged indefinitely from your shifts at the hospital. Get packed and say your goodbyes. I’ll have… Shino accompany you to Suna.”

Sakura blinked. “Yes. That will be…” She trailed off, leaving what it would be unsaid.

“Dismissed.” She waved them away and took the sake as a shot before grabbing a stack of papers with a frustrated sigh.

———

As it turned out, she left at sunset. They didn’t talk much between the order from Tsunade and her leaving. He felt too deeply to say much. Sakura whirled about his house like a small pink tornado, fretting primarily over which medical volumes to bring and which to leave behind.

He walked outside and summoned Pakkun.

“Hey Boss.” The pug snapped at a lizard startled by his sudden appearance, then attempted to play it off like he missed on purpose.

“Sakura’s going on a mission to Suna. Long term. How do you and the pack feel about carrying things back and forth for us? I know how you all hate the desert. You can go discuss it with them and come back.”

Pakkun didn’t hesitate. “Not a problem. And I can speak for all of us.”

“Good. I just wanted to know if I needed to arrange another method. You can go.”

“Say, boss?”

“Yes?”

“What if we signed up a contract with your girl? Then she could summon us herself. That is, if you don’t mind sharing us.”

Kakashi let _your girl_ slide. “It’s alright with me. Obviously you’ll need to talk to her directly. But not now. She’s busy.”

The pug scratched at his ear. “Oh, forgot to tell you. Pocchari had another litter two months ago. Eight pups.”

“Congratulations.”

“Bull’s old lady is expecting any day too.”

“Pass on my felicitations.”

The pug snorted. “Take a hint, boss. Haven’t you thought about raising up some puppies? We’re not getting any younger, you know. Got lots of room here for them. It’ll be like old times.”

Kakashi winced.

“Okay, forget old times. If you want another generation of ninken, there’s no time like the present. Let me know pretty soon though, because I’m gonna kick them out of the den any day now.”

“I’ll think about it.”

———

At the gate when she left, he wanted to make a gesture that would convey both to her and to everyone else his commitment to what they had.

He pulled his mask down and kissed her hand.

By the time Kakashi released her hand and pulled his mask back up as if he was in no particular hurry, Sakura’s face was as pink as her hair, Hinata had fainted into Shino’s impassive embrace, and someone had cat-called, “Damn, _now_ I get what she sees in him!”

———

Gaara sent Kankurou as their offering, surprising everyone. Kakashi was part of the welcoming committee, walking the Suna jounin over to the academy, where he would discuss with the teachers the qualities necessary to become a good puppeteer with an aim to identifying potential students for him.

They reached the academy just as classes were getting out. Hyuuga Hinata was there, apparently meeting her younger sister Hanabi, who was close to graduating.

“Ooh, look, onee-chan! Isn’t that a puppeteer?”

Kankurou smiled with pride, until the girl followed it with, “Do you think he’s here as part of a show? Can we get tickets? Puppeteer-san! Are you selling tickets to your show? Where’s it playing?”

Kankurou’s proud smile vanished instantly, and his mouth twisted as Tsunade turned a laugh into a cough. “I’m sorry, we only have tickets left for the Sunday matinee,” he said sarcastically. “It’s playing at—what the hell?”

Hinata had fainted again.

———

Sakura and Kakashi tried phone calls, but arranging times to talk was always awkward, with her shifts being chaotic and subject to abrupt change. Kakashi never liked talking on the phone anyway. He suggested switching to letters.

Her letters were frequent and brief, written in a snatched moment and sent off on a whim.

His were long and not sent as often, although he tried to make sure it was at least once a week.

The new ninken, Gyuu-chan, was a prominent topic in the early letters.

_I named his father Pakkun because he was always eating in such a funny way, “paku paku” [Japanese sound effect for “chomp chomp”]. I couldn’t believe such a tiny little thing could open his mouth so big. Gyuu-chan takes after his father in love of food, his tummy is always going “gyuuuuu” [Japanese sound effect for tummy rumbling]. One big advantage of ninken over regular dogs: Gyuu-chan came already potty trained…_

Sakura’s letters were often complaining: “ _I hate the food here! Everything is salty and spicy and the Kazekage eats gizzards like they’re candy. Gizzards!_ ” read one letter, in its entirety.

Sometimes the complaints were more serious:

_There’s a fungal infection of the lungs going around here and I just can’t understand it. This is such a dry environment, how could a fungal infection get going here? It’s not responding to my normal treatments. Am I misdiagnosing this? I feel so incompetent…_

_I had a nightmare last night that you died while I was in Suna, that you died all alone and I couldn’t reach you…_

_The Suna council rejected the Kazekage’s attempt to modernize some of Suna’s marriage laws. Again. “Can’t you just kill them with your sand coffin?” I asked him. He told me not to tempt him…_

There were pleasant letters too:

_The stars here are so beautiful! Why didn’t I remember that the stars here were so amazing?_

_I picked up this novel at the market on a whim and I have a feeling you’ll enjoy it so I’m including it here with Pakkun. You be the judge as to whether the sex scenes measure up to Jiraiya-sama…_

That one got a response the next day:

_Not quite but then nothing can. Still very good. The Land of Water setting is so refreshingly exotic and I loved the beach scene—although I’m not sure how I feel about those teeth…_

———

“Bones,” barked Gyuu.

“I heard you the first time,” grumbled Kakashi. “You need to learn patience.”

“Want bones now.” The puppy span in a circle. “Smell bones.”

“Down,” said Kakashi sharply. Gyuu obediently dropped to the grass, with only a small huff of complaint, and remained still and silent as Kakashi counted the passing time.

“Up,” said Kakashi, and Gyuu started to leap into action.

“Back.” Gyuu skidded to a stop. “I said ‘up’, not ‘hunt’. Again. Down.”

The puppy laid down, and Kakashi counted again. “Up.”

Gyuu got up. “Hunt.”

With a happy bark, Gyuu dashed off to find the hidden bones. As he hunted, Kakashi went through his katas.

When the training session was done for both of them, they strolled home, Gyuu carrying an enormous bone in his mouth as a trophy. The pug gnawed contentedly on his prize while Kakashi made himself some chicken and eggs to have with rice as an oyako-don.

“Dad!” said Gyuu. “Dad’s coming. Boss. Dad dad dad. Boss! I smell Dad. I smell Dad Boss. Boss! Boss! Hey Boss! Dad!”

“Aa,” Kakashi acknowledged. He got a bowl of water ready for the older pug to drink when he got in.

Pakkun came in a minute or so later, panting, and guzzled down the waiting water before bothering to even greet Kakashi. “Hey Boss.”

Kakashi took the scroll out of his pouch. “Thanks Pakkun. See you around.”

“See ya.” Pakkun popped out of existence, and Gyuu pouted.

“Dad didn’t play. Wanted to play.” The little head laid down on the front paws, bone temporarily forgotten. “I miss Mama. I miss Mama now.”

Kakashi paused to scratch the dog affectionately behind the ears before washing his hands and resuming cooking. “I know the feeling, buddy.”

———

When Kakashi strolled into the Hokage’s office one afternoon about fourteen months into Sakura’s mission, he had to duck a paperweight that sailed through the open door and lightly cracked the far wall. Well, at least she wasn’t using chakra.

“You're late.”

“Well, you see, my dog ate—”

“Save it.” Tsunade waved a scroll at him. “A hawk arrived from the Kazekage during lunch. Naruto is in Suna. No mention of any plans to come back to Konoha. No mention of anything about anything about one of _my ninja_ except that he’s in _another village_. No suggestion of my permission for such a thing being in any way required or even nice to have.”

Kakashi accepted the scroll and read it. “Perhaps the Kazekage doesn’t want to ask for something he doesn't expect to receive. Or… perhaps Naruto asked him not to…”

A vein was bulging on the Hokage’s forehead. “Does he think that the rules don’t apply to him at all? To go to Mount Myobuku without asking my permission, just after the war, was something I understood and was willing to overlook. This is something else. Now Konoha is going to have to respond to this in a way that is perfectly polite and diplomatic but which also _burns their asses to a crisp!_ ”

“Sounds like a difficult challenge, Hokage-sama.”

“You should know, you’re going to write it.” Tsunade smiled evilly.

“Hokage-sama?!”

“Yes, aren’t you always telling people what a _smooth talker_ you are?”

“I…”

“That’ll probably help you during your trip to Kiri to negotiate the trade agreement as well.” The Hokage was now looking postively cheerful. “You know, Kakashi, when you become Hokage, you can do this wonderful thing called _delegating._ Sweeten your willingness to take the position early any?”

“As soon as Sakura returns, Hokage-sama.”

“Yeah, I thought not.”

———

“Well, look at this. I knew the Mizukage’s amnesty program was a mistake.”

“Hn. As you say.” Zabuza had his bandages down around his neck as he enjoyed a beer outside in a rare sunny day in Kiri. He looked almost exactly the same as he had in their previous encounter in the land of Waves, with the exception that his forehead protector was unslashed. “But what else was our dear Mizukage to do when she finally found her soulmate and it’s that little upstart Suigetsu. Do you know she's actually made him the leader of the Seven Swordsmen? Not that it means anything now, with two of the swords in Kumo. The Five Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist? Pah. Care to join me?”

“Maa, I don’t know, I hate crowded places,” Kakashi complained as he settled across from him. Zabuza chuckled, because the outdoor seating was unnaturally completely empty. Civilians would occasionally come out, get one look at the legendary Demon sitting there, and promptly reverse course.

“So, one student of yours nearly destroys the world, but the other one saved it. Please tell me the third one isn’t planning anything.”

“Kiba? No. He lost his dog in the war. Took him a while to accept a new one. He’s a good, serviceable chuunin, very reliable for tracking.” A waitress dropped off a plate of sashimi in a hurry for Zabuza and had to be called back to take Kakashi’s order for the same. “And how is little Haku-kun? Not so little now, I imagine. We could have used him in the war.”

“You had him. Nice thing about those forehead protectors you had. He told me afterwards that it couldn’t be easier. He was from a different village to everyone he met. I had to wait it out in our hideout. Too recognizable. The only part of the war I experienced was that genjutsu.” He shook his head and ate a piece of tuna with relish. “What a cruel joke. Speaking of jokes, this will amuse you. Guess what they’ve made Haku.”

“A hunter-nin?”

“Bingo. Suits him down to the ground, really. I think he’s the first hunter-nin in Mist history with a 100% captured alive record.”

They chatted some more about subjects of no real significance, other than to confirm for Kakashi his suspicion that Zabuza was not finding Mei’s rule or peacetime in general to his liking, but with a bored overtone that suggested that he didn’t care who knew it because he didn’t intend to do anything about it. Suigetsu, while nominally his superior, idolized Zabuza and thus followed him around talking his ear off whenever he wasn’t canoodling with the Mizukage. The perfect person to both know and not care about spilling things that might be useful to Konoha generally, if not specifically with the trade agreement he’d come to Kiri to negotiate. He suggested a splitting a pitcher or a bottle of sake, and was surprised when Zabuza not only suggested getting both, but either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Kakashi made sure he always got a refilll.

“The Mizukage and Suigetsu…” Kakashi mused when he judged that Zabuza was at peak suggestibility. “Now that’s a pair where you say, ‘if it weren’t for the mark…’”

“Some couples have a meeting of minds, others a meeting of bodies,” Zabuza said dryly. “They certainly act disgustingly happy enough.”

Perhaps subconsciously, Zabuza rubbed at the side of his face, where his soulmark—the words _Mister, you have the same eyes as me_ —were visible with the bandages off.

Kakashi decided to try a gambit. “What does Haku-kun think of them?”

“Oh, he approves totally, since they’re always going out to eat at his boyfriend’s restaurant.”

“His boyfriend?” This was not leading in the direction Kakashi had anticipated.

Zabuza drained the glass of beer. “An upright, hard-working, and talented chef. A little older than Haku, not much. Nineteen, maybe? I remember, when Haku told me about him the first time, he was very excited. ‘He has a soulmate who isn’t his lover too,’ he said, ‘so he actually understands! He’s not _jealous_!’” Zabuza grabbed the cup of sake and slammed that down too with a disgruntled air.

Kakashi decided he would let Zabuza handle his own refills at this point. “I would have thought Haku-kun would be more perceptive,” he tried carefully.

Zabuza laughed bitterly. “He’s too pure to be truly perceptive, even now. When he turned sixteen, I told him not to call me sensei anymore. He said I would _always_ be his sensei in his heart, that he would always be the extension of my arm. This is the peril of raising your own soulmate.”

“But you were so sure he was nothing but a tool?” Kakashi’s voice was light, but his thoughts were not. He had become accustomed to telling himself that his relationship with Sakura would not change.

“Naruto changed me on that,” Zabuza said quietly, staring at the dregs of beer in the glass. “I hadn’t thought of that… if he hadn’t… I might have done something unforgivable in this life or any other…”

The final words were barely audible and Kakashi decided that this conversation had lead down a path he didn’t want to go. He made his excuses and went back to the hotel at top speed, to work up enough of a sweat to merit taking a long shower.

————

_First you have that month in Kiri—now Pakkun tells me you’re spending the end of the summer on Matsu Beach. You don’t know how much I wish I could be there with you. And not for the pleasure of your company this time—moisture!! Humidity!!! SWIMMING!!!! Did you swim? Did it make your hair flatter at all?_

_Yes, I know, you want to know what’s going on with Naruto, right? Well, I honestly don’t know. I still think he’s more trying to be happy than actually happy. It isn’t that he doesn’t like or even love Gaara but… oh, it's such a mess! Gaara must have seen Naruto’s bare arm I think because suddenly he can hardly stand to be around me… he isn’t being cruel to me or anything, he’s just avoiding me, and when Naruto and I are together well… and it’s so hot and dry and the food is still terrible and I just want to go home!_

Pakkun is still there when Kakashi looks up from the brief note. “Gyuu and Cowboy getting along any better?”

“No, but it doesn’t worry me,” Kakashi said. “Gyuu just has to learn that just because you lead your generation of my pack, it doesn’t mean the new pack will automatically make him their leader. I think it’ll sort itself out as the pack gets bigger.”

Pakkun made a noncommittal woof. He hopped up onto the hotel bed and laid down next to where Kakashi was sitting. “She’s a real nice girl, Floral Green. The boys all like her a lot. Good taste in shampoo. Always gives us her food. She sure doesn’t eat much for a kunoichi.”

“Has she lost weight?”

“Don’t female humans always want to do that?” The dog casually rolled over with his belly facing Kakashi, and his summoner took the hint and began giving him a belly rub.

“Is she still having nightmares?”

“You’d have to ask Bull. She likes him around best, but it doesn’t leave a lot of room for the rest of us.”

“Wait here, Pakkun,” said Kakashi, standing up. “I have a few letters to write.”

———

“—truly appreciate it, Hyuuga-sama,” Tsunade was saying on the phone as Kakashi walked in. “Especially because I know how difficult an event of this scale is to plan at such short notice. But then Hinata _is_ such a good, humble girl, isn’t she? And very mature. I am sure you won’t regret allowing her to marry so young. And the marriage will do a great deal for the alliance. The Hyuuga devotion to Konoha is so commendable.” Tsunade rolled her eyes at Kakashi, pointed at the phone with her free hand, and then mimed squeezing the life out of something as she listened. Kakashi chuckled softly.

“That is _so_ true, Hyuuga-sama. Well, let me leave you to your planning then. I’ll see you on Saturday. Goodbye!” She cradled the phone. “Damn that man. Feels the need to call me every day to remind me what a favour he’s doing me allowing Hinata to marry now. As if I couldn’t have found another way to get Naruto back to the village. And Sakura, yes, yes, I know, but she would have come back about now anyway. It’s been a year.”

It had been nineteen months, and since Kankurou was not likely to leave Konoha without his lavender-eyed soulmate, Gaara had been showing every sign of wanting to hang onto Sakura’s services in return. This would change that, as the new Sabaku no Hinata would be headed to Suna, although under a convoluted and intricately negotiated marriage contract with clauses for every conceivable situation. “I have the speech here for you to check over, Hokage-sama. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.”

“There’s a betting pool going over what gesture you greet her with, you know,” said Tsunade as she accepted the scroll. “I expect to make a killing on a cheek kiss.”

“Maa, but when you win a bet Hokage-sama, things always go wrong, don’t they? It’s a good thing I always greet everyone the same way.”

He waited, reading _Icha Icha Tactics_ , leaning against the outer wall, for a little over two hours before a flash of pink and red darted through the trees and up to him.

Kakashi closed the book and waved at her. “Yo.”

“Yes!” cried Izumo from the gate. “Two hundred ryo! Pay up, sucker!”

“Why does he have to be so predictable,” moaned Kotetsu, as Sakura smiled, reached out her hand to Kakashi, and the two of them body flickered away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah I know in the real Naruto Hinata and Kankurou were in each other’s presence for sure at some point during the Chuunin arc but in this AU that didn’t happen because reasons


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is about twice as long as the previous chapters have been and still doesn't cover as much ground as I wanted it to, but I hope you enjoy it. :3

Kakashi bustled around the kitchen while Sakura took a shower. He’d wanted to make her something that really said “welcome home”, so he’d splurged a little on matsutake mushrooms and other autumnal delicacies of the Land of Fire. He’d wavered on whether it would be self-indulgent to have grilled saury. It was in season, but it was his favourite, not hers. He decided that he was part of coming home for her too.

Sakura padded her way to the doorway to the kitchen just as he was finishing grating the daikon radish to serve with the fish. “Can I help with anything?”

Kakashi turned and almost did a double take. She was still wearing her bathrobe. He felt his cheeks getting hot.

Sakura looked both surprised and pleased by his reaction. “Well, since you were kind enough to buy me this new robe and slippers, I thought you would want to see how it fits.” She did a twirl to demonstrate, and when she came back to a stop, he could see her cheeks had reddened as well.

Kakashi turned back to the radish just in time to avoid nicking his knuckles. “Ah, I’ve got it all under control here. You just relax.”

“Okay.”

As she padded away, Kakashi did a quick recap of what had just happened, not dissimilar to how he would quickly run over what had happened after a fight that went wrong.

_I looked at her. Her hair was damp. I looked down over the bathrobe to the slippers. I felt… my stomach went strange and my face got hot… I was embarrassed? But why? The robe?_

He’d bought the robe for her exclusively with function in mind—it was a unisex one, thick, crossed high at the neck line, and fell to her ankles. In fact, Kakashi had been able to see much less of Sakura’s body than he could in her usual outfit.

No… the problem was that there was something about a bathrobe that made it clear that there _was_ a body underneath.

Okay. So what was the problem with that? He’d held that body in his arms many nights, hadn’t he? He’d saved and been saved by that body. He and that body had never had any kind of problem with each other.

He looked down and realized that he had grated way too much radish for just the two of them. He was rattled, that was certain.

When they lived together before, it had only ever felt right. There hadn’t been embarrassment or awkwardness, even though he barely knew her—he knew that she was wonderful, that he enjoyed being in her company, and that she wanted to be in his company as well, though he didn’t fully understand the latter. Physical affection had come first, immediately and deeply. He’d woken up with his arms around a bare waist uncovered by a ridden up tank top. He’d indulgently rubbed her feet when she propped them in his lap when they watched television or read on the same couch. He’d fallen asleep in his underwear while receiving one of her incredible chakra-enhanced massages. All of that had been the case when they were still very hesitantly beginning to dip past the surface level of emotional and intellectual intimacy. So then why now, when he knew her so much better through their letters and calls, would he be embarrassed by her in a bathrobe? It didn’t make any sense. Naruto’s sexy jutsu which had _naked_ women made him blush a little, but it didn’t embarrass him or make him do stupid things like nearly injure himself. Then why was he embarrassed by Sakura in a bathrobe?

The only time he had been more rattled was when they forced him to read aloud from Aina’s confession scene. There was something about reading the words aloud— _do you really love me?_ He knew very well that everyone thought he was a pervert, a sex-crazed maniac, and that was fine. He was not fine with everyone knowing what he really longed for. 

The rice cooker clicked to warm, and Gyuu, sleeping in the corner, woke up from this tiny sound immediately. “Dinner?”

“Aa.” He opened up the cabinet where the dogs’ dishes were, which brought Cowboy thundering in. “Where’s Kishu?”

“Your girl’s trying to teach him her name,” said Cowboy. All the ninken had picked up on Pakkun’s _your girl_ phrasing for Sakura.

“Well, go tell them dinner’s ready.”

Cowboy looked longingly for a moment at the dish Kakashi was preparing, but obediently trotted off.

Sakura ate even more heartily than he remembered, without any cajoling on his part. She had changed out of the bathrobe into long sleeved pajamas. “This feels decadent,” she said, “eating _matsutake gohan_ in silk pajamas.”

“It’s silk?”

“Mm. Feel.” She reached out her right arm palm up, and he stroked where his off-putting words were written on the skin beneath the fabric. “I splurged, with a little help from Temari’s negotiating skills. The Land of Wind has a burgeoning silk industry, apparently. Do you like it?”

He was thankful that he was chewing saury and thus didn’t have to answer right away. “It’s very pretty.”

She laughed. “No, I mean the feel. Although, thank you.”

“It does feel somewhat decadent. Although silk is very practical too. Warm.”

“Good. I wanted to thank you, by the way, for getting all my clothes cleaned and aired out. It was so thoughtful. I stepped into my room and I felt like I had only been gone a day. I’m thinking about getting some new clothes, though. I’m trying to think of coming back to Konoha now as a fresh start, do you know what I mean? I got a really nice dress to wear for Hinata-chan’s wedding. Hinata-chan’s wedding! Hinata-chan’s getting _married._ It’s still so crazy to me!”

“She is a bit young to get married.”

“No, not that, I mean, when I left, as far as I could tell, she was still disconsolate about Naruto, and while I’ve been gone she’s found her soulmate and it’s _Kankurou_ of all people and now I’m coming back to Konoha just in time to see one of my dearest friends leave! I missed their whole romance! I only got what I could glean out of her letters, and Hinata-chan is not the kind to include the juicy details. She’d probably faint and get ink all over her face…”

The question of his opinion on the texture of silk turned out to be very relevant, because when he later excused himself to shower, she presented him with a beautifully wrapped _omiyage_ gift which turned out to be a black set of silk pajamas.

“Perfect nightwear for a Hokage,” he said. “If we have a midnight crisis people will respect me more in this than boxers. It’ll look good with the hat too.”

She laughed. “Kakashi! But do you seriously like it? _Omiyage_ shopping was a nightmare. I usually get people food as the souvenir, but everyone’s heard me complain about it too much. I ended up buying some nice calligraphy paper and brushes. It’s a special paper made with mulberry bark, beautifully textured. I’m just glad I didn’t have to buy anything for Naruto. His calligraphy is the worst I’ve ever seen.”

“Naruto _is_ coming back, right?”

“ _Coming_ back, yes. _Staying_ … I don’t know… things between him and Gaara are… I can’t help but think it’s not a good relationship for either one of them. Seeing how it is, when one person loves the other person so much more, it’s so unbalanced. But how can I say anything when that’s exactly how it would have been between me and Sasuke-kun? ‘It’s okay for me to want that, but not for you to have it’? It would be too hypocritical.”

Kakashi knew exactly how she felt, because he wanted to say _friends should say something if a relationship is unhealthy_ , yet had he, had any of them, ever discouraged her one-sided obsession with Sasuke? Of course, most of them had thought he was her soulmate, but Naruto was Gaara’s. He remembered Sasuke’s bitter words again. _You think a soulmate brings happiness?_

“Plus I didn’t exactly welcome my mother or Tsunade’s attempts to tell me that I was being swept off my feet by your animal magnetism.” She rolled her eyes. “As if.”

He pressed the pajamas to his chest and schooled his maskless face into an exaggerated expression of hurt. It was the best way he knew to cover up when he actually did feel bad. “You wound me, Sakura.”

She took the bait. “Yep, I can see you bleeding all over the floor. You better shower it off.” As he got up, she lounged herself over the sofa and fluffed up her pillow. “I think I’m just going to watch one more show and then go to bed. I’m hoping if I show up at the hospital tomorrow they’ll give me something to do. I can’t wait to get back to normal.”

When he came out of the shower, dressed in his new pajamas, she had fallen asleep on the sofa in front of the television. He turned it off and covered her in a blanket. Sakura’s mouth was open slightly, and the heel of her palm was jammed into her cheek, twisting the flesh of her face a little. Internally, he watched himself looking at her. Everything seemed back to normal. She was there. He was glad she was there.

Maybe the embarrassment earlier was just from not being used to having her around.

———

The full Suna delegation—including Naruto—arrived the following evening. Or rather, Naruto arrived, and the Suna delegation followed in his enormous wake, completely unnoticed by the vast majority of the crowd.

He came barrelling up ahead of the rest of them looking as if he would burst with excitement, and then he literally did burst, into about a dozen shadow clones. Even with the Rinnegan, Kakashi was not totally sure which was the real body.

“Sakura-chan! Kaka-sensei!” A Naruto picked up his former teammate and swung her in the air while another bear hugged Kakashi. Naruto was clapping Kankurou on the back and laughing at Hinata’s blush, Naruto was fist bumping Shikamaru, Naruto was sheepishly dealing with a mob of fangirls, Naruto was loudly talking to Teuchi and his old teacher about the inferior ramen of Suna; Naruto was basically everywhere, but notably he was not approaching the Hokage. That task was left to the Kazekage, who handled it with his usual gravity beyond his years.

“Naruto! Put me down! You saw me two days ago, idiot! Put me _down!_ ” She kicked the Naruto and it vanished as she fell into a crouch. The Naruto next to Kakashi winced.

_So… I got the real one?_

“Eheheh… sorry Sakura-chan.”

“Shannaro! You can’t just throw me into the air whenever you feel like it! Look at my hair! I actually tried to look nice for you and this is the thanks I get.”

“Sakura-chan, you always look beautiful to me dattebayo!”

She turned crimson. “Id-idiot!”

Kakashi happened to glance over and saw that Gaara was standing in such a way that the three of them were in the same line of sight as the Hokage, and Gaara was subtly but unmistakably dividing his attention. It wasn’t just Naruto and Sakura either—it was definitely also Kakashi, and  Kakashi was forced to dwell uncomfortably on the fact that it appeared that Gaara knew the words written across Naruto’s buttocks, of all places, were his own. _How to put this… my first impression of you three is… I hate you._ If only he had known how much he would regret that flippant statement.

“It’s so sad,” Sakura had told him once. “The only happy words on Naruto’s body are from his parents… Did you know your words are on his _butt_? He didn’t even know they were there—I had to tell him. That was awkward.”

Kakashi turned a page of _Icha Icha._ “It’s good to have you home, Naruto,” he said lazily.

———

Kakashi did one of his least favourite activities that evening: he went to a party.

Even worse, it was an official party and Tsunade had made it quite clear that he, specifically, was there officially, so he had to dress up, and he couldn’t hide behind _Icha Icha_. Konoha was welcoming not only the very large Land of Wind delegation, but also smaller delegations from the Land of Iron, the Land of Earth, and even Konan from Amegakure. Worse, there would be similar gatherings the next two days to welcome more and more people before the grand party of it all, the wedding reception.

And of course all those delegations also wanted to talk business. _As long as we’re here…_

Working security for this kind of thing used to be his favourite detail when he was ANBU. The task was complex and vital; he lead a team but didn't have to interact with them much; he got to eavesdrop and spy; and actual bloodshed was rare. All his favourite things.

Now the task was tedious and overrated; he had to socialize with people he couldn’t order around; he had to _talk_ ; and actual bloodshed would have been a relief in some ways.

There would only be more and more of this thing when he became Hokage. Damn, but he wasn’t suited to the task. It needed someone with a different personality, someone who was charming and thrived on interaction, someone like—

“Kaka-sensei! Have a drink!” crowed his former student, nearly sloshing him with the highball he was offering.

“Naruto,” He slipped into teacher voice unconsciously. “A ninja must not become inebriated on duty.”

“This is a party! Look around dattebayo!”

Indeed, the gathering was quite a bit wilder than the usual political soiree, perhaps because with the devastating loss of life across the shinobi world in the previous decade, the average age in the room was probably about the same as Naruto’s. Tenten was demonstrating her continued ability to do a split, despite her artificial leg, to the applause and cheers of both her friends and a number of awestruck young samurai. Konan, looking very red in the face already, was making cocktail napkins into flower crowns; Kurotsuchi was already wearing one and was attempting to coax another Iwa ninja whose name he didn’t know to put one on. Tsunade, of course, was three sheets to the wind already; he couldn’t see her, but Kakashi could hear her laughter coming from another room. The only person who looked as stiff and uncomfortable as himself was Gaara.

“Is the Kazekage well?”

Naruto blinked, then rubbed the back of his head. “Ah, he’s jealous -ttebayo.”

As blunt as that. Naruto had a lot to learn about discretion and wording still. “I see. The journey went well?”

Kakashi should have known Naruto wouldn’t take a hint. “Well, Gaara refused to have sex while we were on the road, which I don’t understand dattebayo! It’s not like I can’t be quiet if I want to, and he never makes any noise. And now we’re not even staying in the same room! It’s like he _wants_ me to stay here.”

Kakashi’s eyes had widened so far that he was almost surprised the transplanted Rinnegan didn’t fall out. Nearby, a young Ame ninja was choking on his drink, obviously not expecting his eavesdropping to yield _that_ kind of intelligence. Green, very green, but even so, the fact that Naruto’s loyalty to Konoha was so tenuous was _not_ something Kakashi wanted confirmed among the other nations. “Naruto, this is not the place to have that kind of conversation.” _Or anywhere else, if it involves the details of your sex life._

To Kakashi’s dismay, Naruto took it completely sideways. “Ah, I get it, I get it. Can’t talk about Sakura-chan, right? Ah, you’re a lucky man, sensei. Sakura-chan’s wonderful -ttebayo… so wonderful… both of you are wonderful dattebayoooooo…”

And then Kakashi _did_ get sloshed with the highball as he was sloppily hugged by his former student. As he left to change, Kakashi had to go by the Kazekage. The Rinnegan told him that Gaara’s chakra was being tightly checked, yet it wasn’t seething within; it was barely fluttering, and somehow that seemed even more ominous.

Sakura drank too much. Almost everyone drank too much. Around midnight, the younger generation decided collectively to spill out to the roof of the hall and play _kibasen_ , the game where three people hoist a fourth on their shoulders and charge at one another, with the riders attempting to seize each other’s forehead protectors. Naruto and his shadow clones formed an entire team of “horses”, and hoisted up Sakura, who was laughing with joy; they were opposing Kankurou’s puppets with a surprisingly game Hinata atop them. The bashful Hyuuga had certainly become more self-confident over the past year.

“A thousand ryo on the Hyuuga!”

“Shishou!”

“What? I want you to win!”

It ended up a tie, as both girls were laughing too hard to really get into the spirit of competition, to the loudly expressed disappointment of their cavaliers.

“This was fun,” slurred Sakura repeatedly as she leaned on him going home. “So fun. So, so fun, y’know?”

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”

“I’m gonna miss Hinata… I hope she comes to visit a lot…”

“I’m sure she will.”

“Because I don’t want to go to Suna to visit her. I never want to leave Konoha again, Kakashi.”

“I know. I don’t want you to leave either.”

“I don’t wanna leave… it’s so fun here… I love everyone… I love you the most, though…” She yawned and frowned as she concentrated on removing her boots. That accomplished, she unfastened her dress, and Kakashi turned around just in time to avoid seeing her take off her bra as well. “D’you think… I need a shower?”

“I think you can skip it just this once,” he told the bed.

After a few minutes she stumbled into his line of sight, dressed in a shirt and shorts, and crawled into the bed. “You gonna… gonna shower?”

“I think I might.”

“Okay. Drink some water, okay. I love you.” Her eyes were already closed.

Kakashi smiled.

———

“Get Kabuto here now,” Tsunade barked at Genma and Raidou the moment Kakashi came through the office door the next morning.

The pair looked at each other startled, and Genma pulled his senbon out and said, "Like... in chains, or…”

“If he doesn’t come willingly and immediately, then get back-up. He still has access to sage mode as far as we know. Damn! Scratch that plan. Find Naruto and then get Kabuto with him. Tell Naruto it has to do with Orochimaru.”

When her chief bodyguards had left, Tsunade scowled at Kakashi. “Before I tell you what’s going on, let me tell you this: I don’t want to hear anything about how you don’t want to be Hokage or that we should hold off on the transfer of power until the situation is settled. Get me?”

More and more ominous. “Hai, Hokage-sama.”

“Orochimaru has been revived—and killed—again somehow. Either him or someone who looks and acts just like him popped up in the Land of Water under another name and somehow had managed to accumulate a few mediocre followers. Damn, how does he do it? He’s like an infection.”

“His curse seal—”

“I know that!” snapped Tsunade. “I mean how does he _figuratively_ get into people’s minds and seduce them into such dedication?! Even before he became a megalomaniac he seemed like the kind of creepy fucker parents instinctively pull their kids away from, yet over and over and _over_ he manages to get people to lay down their lives for him. Where is _my_ army of devoted supplicants in ridiculous outfits, if it’s that easy?”

Kakashi had an absurd sudden vision of a cadre of Tsunade-cultists, all wearing their hair in pigtails and sashaying around in sensible haori jackets.

“Anyway! That man of the Mizukage’s—” she looked at the letter’s signature—“Suigetsu—he killed this Orochimaru and his followers. The letter is written by him, in fact. She must really be smitten to let it go out like this—or maybe this is after her editing? Funny and sharp, I have to admit. Apparently he was there when Sasuke revived Orochimaru during the war. He says it used Anko’s curse seal and some of Kabuto’s flesh and also goes on at some length about how he thought it was a bad idea from the beginning. Can’t disagree.” She handed him the letter and Kakashi scanned it while she ranted on. “But if all it takes to bring him back is someone with a curse seal, even with all the ones we’ve already dealt with, there are _hundreds_ of them—maybe thousands! The Mizukage wants to turn the Kazekage’s brother’s wedding into an impromptu summit to discuss the issue. What a nightmare.”

“It might not be as bad as all that,” Kakashi said cautiously. “We have already been dealing with the former experimental subjects, but with solely our own resources. If Orochimaru has turned up in the Land of Water, then this is obviously an international issue and I think Konoha has the standing under the treaty to request assistance—and of course to offer it.”

“The Daimyo won’t like that.”

“The Daimyo hasn’t seemed to like much since this summer,” Kakashi said blandly. In June, the Water Daimyo and his heir had been assassinated, yet the culprits had not been found. Officially the Mizukage and her consort’s investigation into who ought to take the throne had made no progress, but the common people already accepted that the Land of Water had undergone a coup. “Unpleasant feelings do not always lead to unpleasant actions.”

“Sometimes it’s better to ensure that they will not,” muttered Tsunade. “Some feelings should be left in the past.”

“You may leave the future to me, Hokage-sama.”

She smiled. “I think I will do so with an easy mind, Kakashi.”

Genma and Raidou returned, with not only Kabuto and Naruto but also Sakura. “She insisted,” Genma said, throwing up his hands to emphasize his utter helplessness to prevent Sakura from doing whatever she wanted, which was probably true.

“I was in the orphanage when they arrived,” Sakura said. “Shishou, is it true that snake’s alive again?!”

Kabuto looked mildly put out by this choice of epithet, but said nothing. Naruto crossed his arms and said, “He won’t be for long dattebayo!”

“The incarnation that we were aware of is not currently alive,” said Tsunade, “unless he can live chopped into pieces, which I am not ruling out. The question is, how did he _get_ to be alive, Kabuto?”

Everyone looked at him. Kabuto returned her fierce gaze steadily. "Not with my assistance, if that's what you're asking. I have no devotion remaining for Orochimaru. The orphans under my care… in another era, they were— _I was_ —his usual choice of victim. Anyone who wouldn't be missed. Anyone who longed to be important.”

Naruto shifted. Through the Rinnegan, Kakashi saw his chakra swirl angrily for the briefest of moments before Naruto got it back under control.

“Then how was Orochimaru brought back?” Tsunade said.

“Pieces of my body as it was then, or the body of someone else who otherwise had already been… deeply imbued with him, would be an ideal medium, but I don’t think an essential one. Far more important would be how potent the original curse seal was. Anko-san’s seal contained Orochimaru at nearly the apex of his personal power. He was constantly experimenting, and many of the curse seals would not contain him at anything like as high a potency. Most of those who received high level curse seals are already dead.”

“You knew this could happen and said nothing?”

“This is the first I’ve heard that Orochimaru’s Fourth War incarnation was made using my flesh. I was unconscious at the time, undergoing a genjutsu. I have consciously avoided thinking about Orochimaru since I experienced my self-realization _._ Remembering, dwelling on all the evil I assisted him with is… paralyzing.”

Tsunade huffed. “How fortunate for you, that you have the privilege to choose not to think about him.”

“As you say, Hokage-sama,” Kabuto said quietly. “I admit I have done great evil, but could I  have done any of it without the deliberate inactions of Sarutobi Hiruzen?”

“Don’t you _dare_ speak Sandaime-sama’s name so casually.”

“I merely meant to point out, Hokage-sama, I am not the only one who chooses not to think about the sins of the past.”

“Hokage-sama,” Kakashi said, “we should not get off-topic.”

He saw the gathered chakra in her fist slowly return to the rest of her system. “Yes. Kabuto. I want a report from you tomorrow morning first thing about the most efficient way to locate, extract, and permanently destroy Orochimaru’s remaining implantations.”

He nodded. “Hai, Hokage-sama. To my knowledge, almost all the cursed seal victims were imprisoned in the Northern Hideout. I do not know what has become of the records there. I suggest interrogating Karin-san on this issue.”

“And I trust you are open to further discussion of this issue?”

“Of course. My life is Konoha’s. That includes my mind. May I request skipping straight to a Yamanaka this time? Their interrogation methods are more embarrassing but less lingering than Morino-san’s.”

“Indeed. Genma, escort Kabuto to an interrogation room. Get... hmm… Santa should be sufficient, I think, since Kabuto is going to be cooperative, yes? We’ll save Ino for the Uzumaki. Although she should be cooperative too, if she ever wants to get out on parole. Raidou, get Ibiki in case he’s needed and also tell Shiho to have her department assemble all the Northern Hideout-related documentation post-haste. My God, and the Kumo delegation is arriving _tonight_. Go.”

They left, leaving only Tsunade and the living members of what might have been Team 7.

Tsunade stared at Naruto for a full minute before he shifted with embarrassment and said, “Baa-chan!" childishly.

“Naruto!” hissed Sakura.

“Pleasant to speak with you as well, brat. Funny how we never managed to get a moment yesterday, wasn’t it? How was Mount Myoboku?”

“Better once I told them I was fasting to gain enlightenment,” Naruto said unashamedly. “I found a town nearby that didn’t do a bad ramen. Not as good as Ichiraku, but better than grubs dattebayo!”

“And how is the ramen in Sunagakure?” said Tsunade with dangerous pleasantness. “Eager to return to it?”

Even Naruto could feel that she was not really interested in Suna’s cuisine. “Ehhhhhh… Baa-chan…”

“Or perhaps I shouldn’t ask? I am only the _Hokage_ , after all.”

Kakashi didn’t need the Rinnegan to tell him she was ready to let him have it. “Sakura and I had better let the two of you work this out,” he said as he nipped at her sleeve with his fingers. Thankfully, she went along with it, because she had been showing every sign of wanting to play middleman between Naruto and her shishou.

“Go home and rewrite that speech,” Tsunade barked at him on their way out.

Sakura was silent for the first few minutes, then said, “Orochimaru. I can’t believe it, but I _can_ believe it, and that's what I can't believe. What next, seriously?! Why is it the horrible people who always come back over and over?”

Kakashi was half-listening, half-reading _Icha Icha_ , as was his usual habit to both soothe himself and keep him out of conversation.

Sakura huffed. “Fine. If I change the topic, will you actually listen?”

“I was listening.”

Peripherally he was fully aware of her now, because she was scheming. The only question was whether it was for a topic to hook him in, or some more drastic measure attempting to separate him from his smut.

“You were right that Tsunade-shishou told them I wasn’t to take any shifts this week,” she said, “but _I_ was right that I managed to get my way in anyway.” He didn’t bother interrupting her to tell her he'd had no doubt she would. “The orphanage has been requesting a nurse to come out and give the children their vaccinations and check-ups for weeks and weeks, apparently. Nobody wants to do it because Kabuto is creepy, that’s about the sum of it. The civilian nurses I can maybe give a pass to because they’re actually afraid of being harmed, but I expected better from the medic-nin. It’s not fear with them, they just think the whole thing is icky and weird and why aren’t those kids out of the orphanage already if they’re old enough to go to the academy, blah blah blah.”

“You don't agree?”

“Well… one place where Gaara made a really good change… he’s started a fostering system in Suna and I can see the difference… Actually he just adopted a little baby boy, he’s such a cute little thing! Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. So I went to do the check-ups and guess who opened the door. Iruka-sensei!”

“The academy teacher?”

“Yes! Did you know he is at the orphanage now? Did you know _why_ he’s at the orphanage now?”

“Rings a bell, and no.”

“He and Kabuto are _soulmates!_ Iruka-sensei and that… and Kabuto! I don't know if they’re romantic or not and frankly I don't _want_ to know, but I have to say, I don't think those nurses would be singing the same song if they spent even one hour there! The littlest kids were afraid to get their shots of course and Iruka-sensei was so patient and gentle and Kakashi, they call him _Iruka-papa_ , and there was tiny little girl who couldn’t quite pronounce it yet and said _Kuka-papa_ instead, have you ever heard anything so cute in your entire life?!” She clasped her hands together and sighed. “But seriously. Kabuto! Iruka-sensei! Wild!”

“How do you know they’re soulmates?”

“Oh, Iruka-sensei told me, because he wanted to apologize to me—” She stopped herself.

“Apologize for what?”

“Nothing. Well, he said some things before I left for Suna. He had the wrong idea. Apparently everyone knows we’re soulmates now.”

“And so us being soulmates makes it fine?” Wasn’t this exactly what she wanted to avoid?

“No, it wasn’t that. He just said… oh. Oh no.”

“What?”

She had a look of horrified realization on her face. “…he said that he realized that strange things can make people happy. Oh _no._ I do not want to think about that!”

Kakashi had more important things to be horrified about. “Was he comparing my sex appeal to Kabuto’s?!”

“I don’t know for sure that he was talking about sex!” she said desperately, clearly as much to convince herself as him.

Kakashi continued on heedless. “This is like that time Naruto called me a perverted hedgehog. Is my hair that bad? So I have unruly hair, is that a crime? Yes, I have a scar, _one scar_ , you can’t compare that to him.”

“Of course not! Your scar is sexy.”

“And I’m tall, and very fit…” He trailed off as he registered that she had just stated that she found his scar appealing.

“You do slouch, though. And the giggle is… um…”

Cold water applied directly to the burn. “Gap moe, Sakura-chan.”

She giggled herself, and linked her elbow through that of the arm carrying _Icha Icha_. “I remember. I like it, but I’m just saying that I don’t think Iruka-sensei sees the appeal.”

He looked away from the page with its description of the beautiful miko fellating the hero while gazing up at him with her big dark eyes to Sakura’s smiling face with its bright green ones. Kakashi swallowed hard.

“You’re so cute when you’re blushing,” Sakura said in a sing-song voice.

Kakashi didn’t answer. _I’m thinking about Sakura sucking my cock. Why am I thinking about that? I should not be thinking that. What is going on? What is wrong with me lately?_

“Are you alright?” Her other hand rubbed his upper arm with concern. “You don’t take compliments very well, huh?”

He felt himself sweating like that time he had to read from _Icha Icha_ all over again.

———

Everything was changing too fast.

Kakashi had prepared a speech to give what was supposed to be merely a perfunctory gathering of representatives of all the hidden villages, a cordial reaffirmation of ties. Now it was going to the tackling of an issue that was both threatening to the future and thoroughly tied to all the worst grudges and recriminations of the past. And Konoha was right in the centre of it. It would be impossible to discuss where Orochimaru’s victims might be without discussing how Orochimaru was able to infect them all. 

The best approach was for Konoha to get out ahead of it by admitting, humbly, that yes, the Third Hokage’s unwillingness to apply the deadly force necessary to stop Orochimaru until Orochimaru was threatening his own life was not only a mistake but a moral failing. But that approach would never be permitted by the current Hokage; she would refuse to hear a single word against her sensei.

The other villages had been prone to call Konoha irrationally merciful from the time of the first Hokage, and if Konoha wanted a hope in hell of convincing them all to let the cycle of revenge end, that would require a promise that those who continued to harm others would still be stopped.

It was an overwhelming task, especially since he had to interrupt it for the receptions of other delegations and the wedding itself.

Shutting down his feelings, shutting down everything except the immediate goal, was a familiar place to be. He had practically lived in that state the entire time he was in ANBU. Semi-consciously, he was aware that Sakura was concerned about him, but he shut that down too. He just couldn’t think about that situation right now. He _couldn’t_.

She didn’t try to make him talk. She did make him eat and take breaks to train the dogs.

“Let’s play with the dogs.”

“You mean training.”

“Okay, training. Fun training. Come on!”

The happy barks of the pups showed they agreed with Sakura.

It kept him going through the difficult realization that he was going to have to make a speech that the Hokage wasn’t going to like at all.

———

Through his Rinnegan, Kakashi could tell at several points that Tsunade was on the verge of explosion, but she never actually ignited. For the most part, the other villages’ representatives seemed to be the young generation, and many of them were of an easy-going temper. There was one significant exception in the attitude department.

Suigetsu grinned, his shark-like teeth gleaming, and spoke up the moment Kakashi finished his speech. “I gotta say that I’ve never cared about human life having any value or peace or prosperity or anything like that,” he said flippantly, “But it’s important to someone who’s important to me, so I guess I have to work with you regardless. I dunno about all this past stuff, but I fucking hate Orochimaru, and I love killing things, so Kirigakure will back any Orochimaru elimination missions to the _hilt_.”

“Konoha is too kind,” said Gaara, “to acknowledge its role in Orochimaru’s rise while glossing over that of other nations. But the truth must be admitted everywhere. The Fourth Kazekage, too, chose to collaborate with him. My father, and it seems, the other Kages of his generation, believed in putting the survival of the village above all else. There was no evil that could not be committed in pursuit of such a noble intention. Even his own children were not spared. And what did it all get him in the end? His corpse was discovered being picked apart by birds, and Suna lost more than half its shinobi. If Konoha had not repelled the invasion, Suna would have ended up completely under Orochimaru’s control as well.”

“We must be careful, then,” said Konan, “not to merely substitute ‘peace’ for ‘the village’ as our end goal.”

Darui eyed her with some dislike, a strong reaction for the placid man. “Was that the Akatsuki’s ‘mistake’?”

“Indeed. But I believe that Nagato always knew deep down that it wouldn’t work. That was why he grasped so eagerly at even the possibility of another way that Naruto offered. By the way, why is Naruto not here?”

“Naruto is not yet involved in planning of this nature,” said Tsunade, and Kakashi was relieved to see that she seemed to have a handle on herself again. “He is, however, absolutely dedicated to eliminating this threat. Naruto is the strongest ninja there has ever been, and when it comes to fighting, I have no doubts about his ability to oppose Orochimaru in any incarnation. But this threat doesn’t simply require strength. We need tracking, intelligence, and fuinjutsu specialists. Neither of the two living Uzumaki have retained any of the clan’s fuinjutsu. The Senju were taught some of it by my grandmother, but not all of it, and most of it was regarding tailed beasts. I myself never had much talent for it. In my team, Jiraiya handled that, but he is dead. He taught his student Minato, who is also dead, and he taught Kakashi, who can speak for himself.”

“Yondaime-sama taught me fuinjutsu,” acknowledged Kakashi, “but although my training was good, my previous experiences with the seal were…” He paused, trying to think how to characterize his attempt to contain Sasuke’s curse seal.

“I was there when the bastard came back for the war, remember,” said Suigetsu. “Sasuke used evil releasing or evilly release or something like that to make him crawl out of that unconscious bitch—”

“Excuse me, Mitarashi Anko is a valuable kunoichi of Konoha,” Tsunade interrupted.

“Right. So he crawled out of that unconscious valuable kunoichi of Konoha and into a body made out of Snake Boy Junior's scales or slime or some grossness like that. And he already knew everything that was going on, because he was conscious and watching from within her curse seal. Which is a whole other level of gross. Hey, do you think he watched her using the toilet?”

There was a collective ripple of disgust and amusement which visibly eased the tension in the room. “Mangetsu-san!” snapped Tsunade.

The rest of the meeting was dedicated to the issue of fuinjutsu users, carefully avoiding further examination of who was to blame for needing them.

———

The next week, they all left.

Naruto stayed.

Kakashi came back to their home to find Sakura consoling a sobbing Naruto in her usual combination of sweetness and fury.

“He says he loves me too much to see me hurting to be with him. I tried, Sakura-chan, I tried so hard—”

“Of course you did! You don’t do things any other way, idiot! He’s just setting you free so that you won’t choose him out of guilt. And that’s a good thing because it’s time for you to stay home! I’m not chasing another friend around the world!”

“But would you chase me, Sakura-chan?”

“You idiot, you absolute moron, of course I would.” She held him tightly, tears running down her own cheeks. “Didn’t you learn anything from those frogs? I would have marched up that mountain and dragged you home a lot sooner if I knew you were wasting your time!”

“Aw, Sakura-chan…”

Kakashi hung back at the periphery, unsure whether to leave, but of course there was no such thing as casual eavesdropping on fellow ninja.

“C’mon, Kaka-sensei! I hope you would chase me too dattebayo!”

Kakashi sat down on the couch next to them with _Icha Icha_ open, as if there was nothing unusual going on. “It would be a lot easier than Sasuke. I can track that ramen smell from anywhere.”

Naruto grabbed him into the group hug, despite his feeble protests that they were getting tears and snot on his signed copy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end of this chapter is the lemon, so if you get to the lemony part you can safely stop there if you don't want to read that. (Or you can skip straight there if you're That Kind. Yes, I know all about you.)
> 
> Edit: When I initially posted this chapter something went wrong and part of the end of the chapter was missing! It should be correct now. NEVER POST WITHOUT PREVIEW KIDS. NOT EVEN ONCE.

Kakashi woke up at his usual time and had two horrifying realizations.

He had an erection.

It was poking Sakura in the upper thigh.

She was yawning and stirring and he was desperately hoping she hadn’t noticed yet. He willed the erection away like he was addressing a naughty pup. _Down boy. Down! Down!_

“Can you like… get up if you’re up,” she said with her eyes still closed. “I want to sleep in because I’ve got an overnight shift, and I can’t when you’re poking me.”

He jumped out of the bed like it was on fire. That opened her eyes.

“What the hell?”

“I am— um— I didn’t mean—”

She rolled her eyes. “Kakashi, chill out. It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. You’re a man. I’m a medic. I know how the reproductive systems work, okay? Take a shower and let me sleeeeeep.” With that she rolled over and pulled a pillow over her head.

It’s not like it hasn’t happened before.

_It’s not like it hasn’t happened before._

_IT’S NOT LIKE IT HASN’T HAPPENED BEFORE?!_

Kakashi read the label of the shampoo bottle aloud to himself about ten times before he could calm himself down sufficiently to think about the situation without wanting to die. At least the shock of hearing Sakura speak so matter-of-factly about his morning erection succeeded in sending it cowering.

His mid-battle situation review habit kicked in again.

Alright. So Sakura was… not… repulsed by him.

She thought his scar was sexy.

She wasn’t bothered by his erection poking her in his sleep, to the point that she _hadn’t bothered to mention it_ oh god. How many times?!

Kakashi paused his data analysis to reread the shampoo bottle, wishing that there was an waterproof edition of _Icha Icha_.

So what did it all mean? She blushed around him sometimes. Did she ever think about him that way? Or was she able to be so calm about his penis poking her _because_ she didn’t see him as a sexual partner, not even potentially?

It would be just the type of cosmic joke that suited the theme of his life if, after a lifetime of rejecting others, he finally actually _desired_ someone, only for her to reject him. If he had to be satisfied with just being loved and understood—

Well, when he put it that way, he felt like the most selfish bastard under the sun. _Look at Naruto, you fucker. Sakura loves you and you’ve got your right hand to take care of_ that _. How dare you be unsatisfied?_

Even though he didn’t have an erection anymore, he viciously switched the water to cold anyway to rinse off.

———

“Happy birthday," said the Hokage. “I’ve got a present for you.”

“Maa… you shouldn't have…” Kakashi protested weakly, because he had a pretty good idea exactly what it was, and he was right.

He opened the box and looked with cold dread in his stomach at the Hokage robes with _Rokudaime Hokage_ blazing scarlet down the back.

“I’m giving it to you in advance,” she said, “so it can be tailored in time for the ceremony. Try it on.”

Kakashi slipped on the robe and hat like he was putting on a hood for his own execution.

Tsunade was watching him with a tender, maternal expression. Somehow her affection did make him feel a little better. “It looks perfect. Like you were made for it instead of the other way around, Kakashi.”

Kakashi wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he settled for, “Hai, Hokage-sama.”

Then she dropped the blow. “Two weeks. You should get your affairs in order. Revise your will, and so on.”

_As if it really is my execution._

“I’ll be making the announcement as part of my speech today. You have the next week off. Maybe even leave Konoha for a few days, take a holiday.”

“Sakura won’t want to go.”

Tsunade’s smile became even more maternal and satisfied. “Mm. I have to admit, you’ve been good for her.”

“She’s been better for me.”

“Well, I’ve seen the change in you both, and I’m glad for it. Anyway, get out.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama.”

———

It was unusual for the Hokage to call a meeting of all the jounin. A meeting of all shinobi was even rarer. For a Hokage to call for a formal assembly of every resident of Konoha was unprecedented. It was to be—so the Hokage’s invitation said—a combination of census and announcement. Every clan head was instructed to provide an official tally of their ranks, and clanless individuals to report to the Hokage’s assistant Shizune.

Although the invitation had made no mention of dress, almost everyone had decided that this occasion called for the most formal attire. Kakashi had never before worn this kimono, with its five diamond Hatake crests adorning the black silk. He didn’t even know who had it made: his father? His grandfather? Older than that? He would never know.

Sakura wasn’t up on the balcony with him and the other clan heads, but down in the crowd, wearing the same dress she had worn to Hinata’s wedding.

“Should I be up here Kaka-sensei?” Naruto whispered loudly. Kakashi could see Naruto looking from the sea of kimono-clad clan heads sitting _seiza_ around him to himself, kneeling not quite so neatly and dressed in a simple suit.

Kakashi nodded.

Shizune began by announcing the tally of non-clan affiliated shinobi and civilians, then began asking the clan heads to give their tallies. It was half a fashion show and half an exhibition of historical dress.

“Akimichi-sama.”

Chouji stepped forward, the vibrant reds and oranges of his heirloom kimono even more vivid against the subdued mattes of most of the rest of the clan heads. “The Akimichi clan numbers seventy, including five who could not be present.”

“Yamanaka-sama.”

Ino had chosen to dress in what must have been her father’s kimono, skillfully modified for her frame with a combination of tailoring and padding, virile and imposing. Yet she paired it with her long hair pulled up into the most old-fashioned, feminine up-do, pinned with fluttering _kanzashi_ ornaments and an profusion of bellflowers and bush clover. Her make-up was subdued except for the eyes, which were boldly outlined. “The Yamanaka clan numbers fifty-two, including two who could not be present.”

“Nara-sama.” Shikamaru, dark and subdued as a shadow.

“Sarutobi-sama.” Konohamaru, looking far too young for such a responsibility.

“Inuzuka-sama.” Tsume, somehow looking even more wild and alert in contrast with her formal dress.

On and on went the roll call.

“Uzumaki-sama.”

“Uzumaki-sama, what?!” sputtered Naruto without getting up, quite spoiling the formal elegance of the proceedings. People smiled and laughed indulgently.

“Just say how many are in your clan, Naruto,” Shizune said.

“I’m not the head of any clan dattebayo!” he protested.

“There are two Uzumaki, Shizune,” Tsunade said wearily. “Just move on.”

“Hatake-sama.”

Kakashi got up and stepped forward. “The Hatake clan numbers one.” Unlike the others, he did not step back to his place.

“Uchiha-sama,” said Shizune. People shifted and muttered.

“The Uchiha clan is extinct,” Kakashi answered.

“Shimura-sama.” Even more unrest.

“Silence,” said Tsunade, and people settled.

“The Shimura clan is extinct.”

“Mitokade-sama.”

“The Mitokade clan is extinct.”

“Utatane-sama.”

“The Utatane clan is extinct.”

In four short sentences, Kakashi had pronounced the disappearance from the earth of the Uchiha clan as well as the clans of the three non-Uchiha individuals most responsible for their deaths.

“Hayashibara-sama.”

“The Hayashibara clan is extinct.”

“Gekkou-sama.”

He was glad Yuugao wasn’t in his line of sight. “The Gekkou clan is extinct.”

The names went on. Names of classmates, neighbours, comrades. Some were names that Kakashi himself only remembered dimly from childhood, and a few he couldn’t remember even hearing. Finally there came the last name.

“Senju-sama.”

There was a long silence. Tsunade, dressed in her Hokage robes, slowly stood up, and walked to the podium, which Shizune silently yielded to her.

“The Senju clan,” said Tsunade, “is almost extinct.”

There was another long silence. Tsunade’s face was expressionless. Finally, she began to speak again.

“Long ago, Konoha was founded through peace between two clans. The Uchiha, which numbered in those days about two hundred fifty, and the Senju, which numbered about three hundred. My grandfather became Shodaime Hokage, and under his leadership, other clans such as the Sarutobi, the Shimura, and the Hyuuga allied themselves with his vision of a society united by the Will of Fire. But Uchiha Madara was not satisfied with the balance of power, and sought to destroy Konoha. He was defeated, and the Nine-Tailed Fox was sealed within my grandmother, Senju Mito-sama, originally of the Uzumaki clan. After, a census was performed. I looked up the figures. At that time the Uchiha numbered one hundred twenty-one; the Senju, two hundred forty-two. Madara’s attack had started in the Uchiha district, which accounted for their great losses.

“There was never peace for long, not to mention the ordinary dangers of thieves and ruffians that shinobi face in missions. When my great-uncle became Nidaime, there were one hundred three Uchiha, one hundred ninety-seven Senju. My great-uncle was a man of many virtues and many flaws, and he had rare genius. He always had the well-being of Konoha as his intent, yet two of the jutsu he developed nearly destroyed not only Konoha but all of humanity. The hazards of Edo Tensei, Nidaime-sama foresaw himself, but it is only recently that even I realized how one of his other creations has brought Konoha to its knees. I am speaking of the soulmarking fuinjutsu.

“It was merely part of his exploration into the possibilities of space-time ninjutsu, the same research that led him to create the Flying Thunder God technique and others. Nidaime-sama noticed the mental imbalance, the isolation, that many shinobi suffered, and he observed that those who had strong bonds were better able to endure. Even before my grandfather died, he envied his bond with my grandmother. When the Shodaime did die, he felt even more alone. He wanted to find someone for himself. So he experimented with fuinjutsu.

“I’m sure Nidaime-sama never intended for the fuinjutsu he developed to spread like a virus, but it did. So now we all have this information whether we want it or not. It has become, in only a few decades, our normal: we marry our soulmate or we don’t marry at all. And what effect has this had? Well. Despite incorporating more and more clans into Konoha, our total population of shinobi dwindles year by year. Within the past twenty years, the dwindling has become a freefall. The attack of the Nine Tails killed half our forces. The Konoha Crush halved them again. The first day of the Fourth World War halved them yet again. You have all experienced this devastation along with me. You have all seen your family members, your friends, and yes, your lovers die.”

Tsunade paused a moment to collect herself.

“You may call me hypocritical for what I am about to say. But I am asking you to take me as a grim warning. I am the last living Senju. When I die, my clan, this clan that has produced so many powerful shinobi, including three Kage, will be extinct. Even twenty years ago, when I had about two dozen living relatives, I should have been able to foresee this possibility. But I selfishly ran away from Konoha and all responsibility for its continuation. All because I had lost my soulmate.

“The year I graduated the academy, two hundred other children also graduated. The planned Rokudaime, Hatake Kakashi, graduated as one of seventy. The man we all hope will become Nanadaime, Uzumaki Naruto, was one of twenty-seven. This year’s class is ten. Leaf Shinobi, can this possibly sustain itself?”

She paused for rhetorical effect, though no one offered an answer.

“Some may say that in times of peace, there can be no need for soldiers. Even should peace last, shinobi are not merely warriors in our potential. We saw Konoha rebuilt within weeks thanks to Wood Release. Without war injuries to consume our time, imagine the breakthroughs in healthcare that my brilliant apprentices Kato Shizune and Haruno Sakura can develop. I only hope I will live long enough in my retirement to assist them. Imagine the Yamanaka ability to enter minds used to _heal_ them, not break them. We can set fires, stoke them, extinguish them; we can literally move mountains. We have so much to offer this world, to offer humanity. But how can we do so when we selfishly allow our talents to die with us?”

Another pause.

“The implication of my words is clear, but I will make it explicit: Leaf shinobi need to have more children. All of you, but most especially those of you who possess bloodline abilities. Will future generations be able to harness the peaceful potential of the Hatake white chakra, the Nara shadow-binding, the Aburame kikaichu? That will entirely depend on the decisions we make now. We must not only be willing to die for the Will of Fire; we must be willing to give new life to it.

“Some of you may be willing to do this in principle, but don’t know how to take the next step; or perhaps you question your ability to be a parent; or the kunoichi in particular may be wondering how to afford the time off missions for pregnancy and infancy. The Hokage’s office, under my brief continuing tenure and, starting next month, under that of my successor Hatake Kakashi—”

Uproar. Positive uproar, nearly acclamation. Even Naruto was clapping, although his smile was nowhere near its usual brightness.

“Oh, as if it’s really a surprise!" scolded the Hokage, smiling too. “Yes, now that a _certain someone_ is back, he’s finally agreed to take the hat. As of the beginning of October. Now be quiet. You’re _all_ like children!”

More laughter. The mood had lifted. Kakashi was glad for the mask. He felt like despite all his training and habits, if he wasn’t wearing it, his face would have to show his disbelief. The announcement that _he_ was becoming Hokage had people in a hopeful mood? Who did they think he was?

“I cannot compel you, but I can exhort you, and I do. Consider my words well. Not only as the Hokage, but as the last Senju, who, if nothing changes, will be succeeded by the last Hatake and then by one of only two known Uzumaki. If that doesn’t bother you, then I’ve wasted my breath.”

With that, she made a gesture of dismissal and retired back into the tower. 

———

A few days later, Sakura arrived at Kakashi’s house after her shift at the hospital expecting to smell him cooking their dinner.

Instead, she found him sitting at the kotetsu with a variety of papers arranged in front of him in piles.

“I have a proposal to make,” he said without further preamble. “When… not long after the war ended, when I revised my will… I discovered that under the law, if my heir is not my near relative, the taxes are fairly high. But there is no estate tax for a spouse.”

Sakura stared at him.

Kakashi fumbled through some papers. “So, I need to revise my will again anyway, and I have the figures here, if you want to see them, for how much you’d save—”

“Kakashi. Is this you asking me to marry you?”

“I—” more fumbling—“I—if you’d look at this paper here—”

“Kakashi. I don’t need to see any papers.”

He didn’t hide his disappointment.

“I want to marry _you_ , you foolish man!” She crossed her arms. “I ought to hit you! It isn’t about saving money to me!”

“You… want to marry me?”

Her expression softened, and she nodded.”Yeah.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “Oh.” Then he looked down at the papers. “This was a lot of wasted paper.”

“Have Yamato-taichou make some more.”

———

In bed that night—her arm pressed snugly in its spot against his side as usual—she asked him, “You said you thought about this when I had just moved in with you, so why did you wait to bring it up until now?”

He didn’t answer at first, and she tapped at him.

“I’m not asleep,” he yawned.

“I know you aren’t. That was an ‘answer my question’ tap.”

He sighed. “Under eighteen must have parental permission to marry.”

“Oh.” He feels her wince against his shoulder, doubtless remembering the last time they saw her parents, before she went to Suna.  The evening started with strained politeness, until midway through the meal something about the way Kakashi smiled at Sakura set her father off. He accused Kakashi of planning this from the start, to the point of having shifted her onto another team only to cover up their affair, then got even more offensive by asking if he waited until she was a chuunin to take her virginity. At that point, Sakura stood up and said they were leaving, and her father had screamed after them not to come back until she was ready to move back home.

“And when you turned eighteen, you were in Suna, and since you’ve come back we’ve both been so busy…”

“Right…” She sounded a bit discontented. “Um… did Tsunade-sama write her speech alone, or did you help her?”

“She wrote it alone.”

“But you agree with her points?”

“They seem hard to dispute.”

“You’re so cagey tonight!”

He coiled a finger in her hair and smiled. “You never let me get away with anything, huh? I take it you disagree?”

“Well it just seems so callous, to have children for that reason, and not because you love the other person and want to make a child together and love and raise that child… Don’t you think that children deserve to have parents who love each other?”

“That’s hard to dispute as well.”

“You’re going to be a perfect Hokage.”

Now it was Kakashi’s turn to wince, although he knew she was teasing.

“So, your office is going to what... arrange a lot of marriages?”

“ _Omiai_ ,” Kakashi clarified. “Just introductions, meetings. A Yamanaka elder has… agreed… offered… well, insisted, actually, on being permitted to offer her services to analyze compatibility.”

Sakura started giggling. “That must be Ino’s great-aunt. Oh, I’d love to listen in on those sessions. She’s the strangest combination of kind and sadistic. We were afraid of her as children. Ino takes after her a little.” She sighed a little. “But in a village like ours, hasn’t everyone met, especially among shinobi? I mean, can there really be great romances waiting to break out?”

“I don't think anyone expects that. But there’s a lot of ground between ‘great romance’ and ‘mutual hatred’, though. There’s even a lot between ‘great romance’ and ‘loveless marriage.’ There’s respect, and affection…”

“Right… That’s… enough, right?”

“I think it could be for some people. Or at least it’s better than nothing.”

She turned in his arms—still within his embrace, but facing away from him—and fluffed her pillow a bit before resettling. “I’d better get to sleep.”

He breathed in her hair sleepily. Sakura always smelled so good. “Goodnight.”

She didn’t reply.

———

When Sakura told Tsunade of their plan to have her quietly marry them before Kakashi’s elevation, the Slug Princess had, in Kakashi’s opinion, lost her entire mind. How else to explain her cancelling her planned worldwide casino tour with Shizune and instead setting to work arranging a grand wedding?

“The Hokage can’t get married quietly! What a lot of nonsense. This isn't just a wedding—this is a diplomatic event, brat. The Hokage and the new female Sannin… remind everyone _just who_ saved the world… the strongest of all the Hidden Villages… the Leaf!” Her eyes had been shining. Simultaneously old and nostalgic, yet young and hopeful.

“Of course,” Kakashi had said mildly, “a large portion of the reason why the world was in jeopardy in the first place was also the Leaf…”

Tsunade had huffed, compared him to his mother again, and told him that he should save his lip for something useful, like irritating Onoki or Ay.

They had compromised on a late November wedding. At least the ceremony for becoming Hokage was a rather simple event. He simply made obeisance to the memory of the honoured dead--for the first time, wording it to include _all_ those who had died “for love of the village”; spoke promises to uphold the Will of Fire; put on the robes; and finally strode out onto the balcony to make a brief speech.

Kakashi framed his upcoming leadership as transitional, with two goals: to resolve the consequences of the failures of the past, and to determine how to prevent similar failures from occurring in the future. He spoke of being accountable to the village, and of making the village accountable to him as well. He thanked the jounin for their support but pledged to consider himself equally beholden to the lower ranks and non-shinobi of the village, and then dismissed everyone.

“I'd vote for you all over again,” said Sakura, with a grin.

“I don’t think Hiashi would,” said Kakashi dryly. “I sent him a message saying that as part of an inquiry series into past corruption, his brother’s death would be examined.”

“Wasn’t that unwise? That will just give him time to cover up, won't it?”

“That isn’t the purpose of the inquiry," said Kakashi. “I know the facts, because he and my predecessors were not ashamed to record them.”

“Then what is the purpose, Kakashi?”

“Didn't Kurenai ever teach you about looking underneath the underneath?”

———

At first the _omiai_ meetings were a tough sell. No ninja liked to have their mind delved into, and they became even tougher after word leaked out that the Yamanaka elder who was running the process with great zest (often exclaiming out of nowhere _“I’ve been saying we need to do this for years!”_ ), though intending to be discreet, was rather deaf. Her extremely loud proclamations had an unfortunate tendency to be overheard.

“Ah, so you like to pee on people! I know just the man for you!”

“I think a woman who also loves karaoke and slow dancing will be easy to find, Ibiki-chan.”

“Well well well, Genma-chan, I knew you were a naughty boy, but you do know that cleanliness is really important, right? You can’t be taking up our medics’ valuable time just because you don’t want to use a dental dam. At least take a wet wipe to the area. Intestinal parasites are nothing to joke about.”

The Sarutobi clan also fell into an uproar when Kurenai’s _omiai_ with Kabuto, of all people, progressed so rapidly that she and Mirai—next in line to head the clan, if something should happen to Konohamaru—had actually moved into the orphanage within a few weeks.

But Kurenai’s rapid relationship status change was not alone. Chouji—looking overwhelmed but very, very happy—was soon regularly spotted treating Anko to dango and anmitsu. The sounds of off-key voices and laughter echoed in the wee hours at Yuugao’s apartment, and Ibiki’s resulting perpetual smile was seriously creeping out even the most hardened veterans of T&I.

Naruto showed up crying at their door again, this time because apparently Teuchi had closed down Ichiraku for a week to prepare for his daughter's marriage to Aoba. Apparently they had been dating for some time, and the Hokage’s speech had merely been the tipping point for a commitment. Naruto himself refused to attend the screening session for the _omiai_ —“Kurama said if she starts poking at him he might eat her -ttebayo.”

Of course not every _omiai_ resulted in a quick love match, but plenty did, and while of course there was some gossip about the surprising tidbits that leaked out, for the most part among the shinobi at least there was a kind of gallows humour to it. “Haha, turns out we’re all literally insane, isn’t that funny? Makes you feel better about yourself, doesn’t it?”

The humiliation of possibly having some dark corner of one’s brain revealed to the world no longer seemed an insurmountable obstacle. When the new Hokage made it generally known that sound-proofing jutsus had been strengthened around the meeting room, the only problem left was keeping up with demand for screening appointments.

In addition to overseeing all of this, the Sixth Hokage was swamped with work regarding the difficulty of rooting out Orochimaru. He sent Naruto and Shikamaru together on as many missions as possible, since the two not only worked well together, but Shikamaru seemed to be having a maturing influence on the jinchuuriki. The sooner Naruto was ready to take this damn hat from him the better.

The third member of their cell was the new parolee, Karin, who had been released into the custody of Naruto, or as he eagerly called himself, “her cousin.”

“Idiot, we don’t actually know how closely we're related—”

“Whatever, cousin! Uzumaki ladies, am I right sensei? Red hair and red hot tempers, just like my mom dattebayo!”

Shino was chosen as the fourth, for his tracking and offensive capabilities as well as his even temper. He was not chosen because anyone thought he might be the soulmate of the parolee, but that turned out to be the case, as Naruto related when they returned.

“We can’t keep meeting like this,” Kakashi deadpanned when Naruto bounded into his door and tackled him sideways, almost making his legs leave the cozy warmth of the kotetsu. “Sakura is beginning to suspect something.”

“What am I suspecting?” Sakura called from the kitchen, where she was making tea.

“Make another mug of tea for Naruto,” Kakashi called. “Something awful happened.”

“Karin and Shino are soulmates dattebayo! Who could drink tea at a time like this?”

“See? Terrible.”

Kakashi listened to Naruto venting about how he was soon going to be the only one of the Konoha rookies who wasn’t blissfully in love with a soulmate. Kakashi mm-hmmed and hoped Naruto wouldn’t bring up Sasuke.

Sakura came out with a tray containing two teacups and three steaming cup ramen containers.

“Oh, thanks Sakura,” Kakashi said, pleasantly surprised at the prospect of a snack.

“Don’t you dare! Those are for Naruto.”

———

“Tenzou, tell me what you think about ANBU.”

Kakashi had been expecting a protest of _it’s Yamato now, sempai_ , but instead his junior said, “As you think best, Hokage-sama.”

Kakashi blinked. “I’m not sure we’re having the same conversation. I asked what you thought about ANBU?”

“I’m… I’m used to it, and there… really isn’t a Team Kakashi anymore, so... and of course what you think is best, Hokage-sama.”

They weren’t having the same conversation, but at least now Kakashi knew which one Tenzou was having. “No, I want to hear your _opinions_ , Tenzou. About the ANBU. As an organization.” When the other man simply stared back at him a little perplexedly, Kakashi added, “I know this isn’t something you’ve been asked to give your opinion on before, so if you need to think about it, I understand that.”

Tenzou kept staring.

Kakashi said, “For example, do you think the organization can be reformed, or would it be better to completely eliminate it and start a new covert ops branch from scratch…?”

“I… it goes against my training to think about the Leaf that way, Hokage-sama.”

“Your ROOT training?”

“Yes.”

Kakashi frowned. There wasn’t anyone alive connected with ANBU whom he trusted more than Tenzou, and with his shrewd battle analysis skills, Kakashi had hoped his junior might be able to turn that mind towards the problems riddling ANBU. But Tenzou’s lost face made it clear that this was asking too much from him for now. Perhaps if he paired him with someone… someone with confidence, emotional intelligence, empathy, even a certain amount of innocence… someone who could look at ANBU as a complete outsider, yet who had intelligence training… “Have you worked with Yamanaka Ino before?”

———

“Maybe you and I, and Yamato and Ino, should have a double wedding,” Sakura said cheerfully as she worked on the muscle tension in his forearm.

Kakashi had his other arm draped across his eyes. “Isn’t that a bit last minute?”

“Rushing is in now, and Ino’s always at the forefront of style. When I work around this nerve, it might tingle.”

It was tingling alright. He sighed.

“How many papers do you have to stamp for your arm to be like this anyway?”

“Thousands. Millions. All the other muscles in my body are dying from disuse. I will become merely a beefy arm with chicken legs attached.”

She hummed. “Chicken legs sound good to me right now. Why don’t you take the dogs for a run and I’ll make dinner?”

He took his arm off his face and opened his eyes. She was gazing down at him tenderly as her glowing fingers wiped away the last of the pain in his arm.

"Sometimes I wish you didn’t wear that mask around the house so much,” she said, and then blushed and abruptly dropped his arm. Standing up, she called, “Boys! Walkies!”

The five dogs and pups that currently made up the next generation of his pack came skittering across the wooden floors, barking and yelping.

“Yare yare,” Kakashi sighed, getting up from the couch. “I suppose I might as well make it the whole gang.”

He summoned the rest of the pack, and after the dogs had sniffed each other, Kakashi told Pakkun he wanted to see how the new pups were integrating with the rest of the pack. Despite his complaint to Sakura about not getting enough exercise, he didn’t feel like running somehow.

As he strolled through the forest, Pakkun circled around and up to him.

“What are they tracking?”

“Me, Boss.”

Kakashi laughed. “And if you’re with me they’ll think they’re just smelling you on me. Clever.” He reached down to give the pug a scratch.

“Also thought you might need a chat," ventured Pakkun.

“Is it that noticeable?”

“Nobody knows your tells like I do,” Pakkun said with simple pride. “It’s about your girl, isn’t it? You're making it official tomorrow, huh? That means you’ll be increasing your own pack too, right?”

Kakashi rubbed his thumb against his index finger.

“Like I said," Pakkun continued. “I know your tells, and my nose is even better than yours.”

“We’re not... marrying in that sense.”

“What other sense is there? Especially when I know you want to.”

Kakashi clicked his tongue. “Why? Because I’m a man and she’s a woman?”

“Nope. Because you’re Kakashi and she’s your girl.”

“Why do I understand what you mean by that?”

“Hey, I never said you didn't know me better than everyone else too.”

Kakashi slowed and stopped.

“Pakkun,” he sighed, “I can’t believe I’m saying something so cliche, but I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.”

Pakkun snorts. “Personally, if it weren't for Pocchari, I’d throw my leg over any bitch who’d squat down low enough, but you’ve always been different. Even for a human.”

“Is that a compliment or an insult?”

“Who said it needs to be either? It's just the way you are. If you want to mate with your girl, then tell her!”

“It might… ruin things…" Saying it out loud made it seem so timid.

“Have more confidence in her, if you can’t have it in yourself, boss. Don't you think she deserves the truth? She probably senses it already, and you acting like it isn't there is just going to make her confused and unhappy.”

“I’m always figuring things out too late… especially feelings.”

“I don’t know if that's true. You’ve had your share of arriving just in time too, and—”

Excited barks heralded that the pack had caught on to Pakkun’s ruse and were closing in on them.

When he got home, there was a folded note with a _henohenomoji_ scarecrow face drawn on it. Kakashi unfolded it.

_Shizune requested my help with an antidote compounding. It should take me a few hours at least, so don't wait up. I’ll sleep in tomorrow, so don't worry about your bride looking like a tanuki! I left the rice cooker going, sorry you'll have to handle the rest of your dinner._

A little flower drawing served as a signature.

———

“Did you put aphrodisiacs in the water, Hokage?” Onoki said. Standing nearby, Tsunade was laughing into her sake in an _oh, he’s your problem now, bitch_ manner.

Kakashi put on his best diplomatic eye crinkle. “Oh, isn’t it natural for a baby boom to follow a war?”

“In the old days, yes,” said Onoki, “but nowadays no one seems to give a damn. I told my fool of a granddaughter and that Akatsuki woman—”

“Hey, it's the earth gramps!” interrupted Naruto. “How do you do that floating thing without Sage Mode, anyway?”

Kakashi excused himself quickly and meandered over to where Sakura was chatting with Hinata, whose husband had his arm thrown cockily over her shoulder.

“Congratulations, Hokage-sama,” said Hinata quietly but with a smile. “I’m sure you will be very happy.”

“How’s the Konoha puppet corps doing?” asked Kankurou.

“Certainly it’s not up to the standard of Suna’s yet,” said Kakashi. “I believe the banquet has you sitting next to Sarutobi Hitomi. I’m sure she’ll have a lot to tell you about it. Speaking of which, I believe we had better lead everyone to sit down, Sakura.”

“Good plan,” said Kankurou with a mischievous smirk. “The sooner we eat, the sooner everyone can get to bed, right Hinata?”

Kakashi was glad that Kankurou was too busy enjoying the blush on Hinata’s face to notice the red peeking out above his mask. Sakura could get away with the blush on her face, but he liked to at least _try_ to perpetuate an image of himself as cool, detached, and together.

———

The plan was to circulate among the tables doing their diplomatic duty by thanking all the people who had shown up, most of whom had also dropped serious ryo to do so, and then flee the scene under the cover of the custom of changing out of the wedding kimono into a new outfit. As Sakura in particular was dressed in a very heavy, ornate, and old pure white wedding kimono, people would expect her to want to get into something simpler, and they would expect it to take a while. By the time anyone had figured out that neither of them were coming back, they’d be cozily ensconced in their honeymoon cabin. Hopefully the combination of Kakashi’s reputation for eccentricity and Tsunade's open bar would smooth out any offence.

Things were mostly going smoothly until they reached the set of noisy tables where most of the former Konoha 11 and people closely associated with them were seated. Naruto had bounded from the table he was actually seated at to squeeze himself in between Yamato and Sai, apparently having badgered Yamato into making him a chair.

Naruto barely noticed the bride and groom coming up because all his attention was on Sai and the woman from Kumo next to him, Samui.

“But if _your_ soulmark just says ‘hello’ and _your_ soulmark just says ‘that’s cool’, how do you _know_ it’s about each other?! That could be anyone dattebayo!” 

Samui shrugged, not seeming bothered.

Sai began, “I read in a book—”

“The hell with books!” exploded Naruto. “Aren’t there supposed to be feelings? Love? Passion? _Attraction?_ ”

Sai and Samui exchanged glances. “It’s worked out pretty cool so far,” the blonde said. “Excuse me, Hokage-sama. Where’s the washroom?”

As Sakura stepped back with the Kumo kunoichi to direct her where to go, Naruto leaned in to Sai. “But Sai! Hey! At least she’s super hot, right? Eh? Her body’s better than my Sexy Jutsu dattebayo!”

Sai looked genuinely interested to hear this. “You think so?” Then his expression turned troubled. “But then, you like the Hag…”

Naruto’s jaw dropped, then he raked a hand through his own blonde locks in frustration. Tsunade happened to be passing by and he leapt up to catch her attention. “Baa-chan, the Shodaime, was he ever a bad guy? Like, a _really_ bad guy. Did he blow up any orphanages or lay waste to any sacred forests?”

Tsunade frowned. “No, of course not! He always worked for peace, like you, Naruto!”

“I’m just trying to figure out what the hell one of my past reincarnations did for me to deserve this! I can’t get even _one_ of my soulmates to love me back. Sai has sex on legs fall into his lap and he _doesn’t even appreciate it dattebayo!_ ” He slammed his hand down on the table and disappeared in a puff of wind.

“Where did Naruto go?” Sakura said as she returned.

Sai opened his mouth but Kakashi felt that there was nothing the former Root agent could say that could improve this situation, so Kakashi cut in, “Let’s go have a look for him after we change.”

———

Naruto actually was the one to find them, as Sakura’s startled shriek and the bang of clones disappearing made clear.

“Stop, Sakura-chan! Boss only left five of us!” the sole remaining clone was begging as Kakashi body flickered into the room where Sakura was changing. His new wife had apparently dismissed the kimono assistant once the thing was off and had gotten on her bloomers and shirt but nothing more.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing in here, pervert Naruto?!”

“I didn’t see anything! Nothing I haven’t seen before at least dattebayo! Aw, c’mon Sakura-chan!” he said as he ducked. “I really want to talk!”

“You better not be thinking about leaving Konoha, idiot! I want to relax on this vacation, not worry about what stupid trouble you’re getting yourself into out there!”

“No, no!” He waved his hands. “It’s just… I’ve decided I’m fed up with trying to figure out why, and floundering around wondering ‘why them, why always them, why never me.’ Sai and that Cloud woman are the last straw. I’m just… it’s all a lot of _nonsense!_ I didn’t really follow Baa-chan’s speech all that well, but you know what? Fuck Tobirama. I should have flipped him off when I had the chance.” Naruto brightened. “Hey, Kaka-sensei, could you use the Rinnegan to—”

“That would be unwise, I think.”

“Have you been drinking?” demanded Sakura.

“No, I finally got it all clear, Sakura-chan! I’m gonna make Kurama shut his big furry face and I’m gonna get that _omiai_ done. I’m going to meet _someone!_ Even if she’s not my soulmate, I know I can get something better than what those two _icicles_ have _._ ”

This didn’t strike Kakashi as exactly fair to Sai, but Tsunade had been trying to enlist Kakashi in getting Naruto on the track to fatherhood, so he wasn’t sure if he should say anything.

“So I’m just saying… fuck it -ttebayo!” Naruto threw up his hands.

“You _have_ been drinking.” Sakura scowled.

“Aren’t you happy, Sakura-chan? It’s what you wanted me to do, right?”

“We’ll talk when I get back,” she said. “But now— _leave!”_

With that, she whacked him out of existence.

———

The trip to the cabin was swift and silent. They had both agreed that what they both wanted more than anything else from a vacation was peace and quiet. He hadn’t been sure that what was essentially a hideout would appeal to her, but she had agreed enthusiastically when he brought it up.

“I think I’ve stayed there before on a mission with Kurenai-sensei! It’s small, but it has an actual bed—I remember because the three of us girls got it and poor Shino was stuck sleeping on the floor of the kitchen with his bedroll. There isn’t a soul around for fifty kilometres. It’ll be perfect, if we pack well.”

Rather than packing well, he’d had some clones and the ninken pack assist him in setting it up, so that they wouldn’t even have to grab a scroll as they snuck out of their own wedding reception.

“Don’t panic when you see the smoke,” he warned her. “My clone’s there.”

“Oh, what a great idea!” she said, putting a little spin into her flip from a branch. “So it’ll be warm!”

His clone opened the door for them and disappeared with a smile. Kakashi blinked as he received a rather uneventful day of preparations and reading _Icha Icha_.

Both of them breathed in with pleasure. “ _Chankonabe_ stew again?” Sakura said. “Are you still worried I lost too much weight in Suna?”

“I never said that,” he said mildly as he performed the seals to secure the cabin.

She went to the sink and performed a small water jutsu to wash her hands, since the cabin didn’t have running water, and began dishing up the hearty stew favoured by sumo wrestlers. “You didn’t have to say anything. When I first got back, you kept grabbing onto me like you thought a strong breeze would blow me away. Not to mention all the times you took me to Amaguriama when I know how you hate sweets. Why do men always say they hate sweets, anyway? ‘Oh, I’m so manly, if sugar touches my tongue I will literally die.’ Sweets are delicious.”

Kakashi tapped the copy of _Icha Icha Violence_ that his clone had left on top of the pallet of canned and dry goods for their week. “Yes, because I care so much about my reputation.”

“You do, though.” She placed two large bowls onto the small round table and took a seat. “Although I admit that you wouldn’t let reputation stop you from doing something you enjoyed. You’d just sneak it, like the way you giggle when you think no one is watching you read.” She paused.

“Gap moe,” she said at the same time as him, and they both laughed.

———

Sakura insisted on cleaning up, pointing out that he had not only cooked but done everything else too. Kakashi took the black silk pajamas with him outside to the tiny outhouse, working as fast as he could to answer the call of nature and change in the cold and pitch dark. It must have been around midnight.

When he reentered the cabin, Sakura had apparently already finished cleaning up the dinner. She was lying on the futon on her back, still in her regular clothes, thumbing through _Icha Icha Violence_ with a pink face.

“You’re not tired?”

“Not really,” she said.

“Are you looking for something?” He had finished taking his shoes off and walked barefoot to the bed.

“I don’t know.” The pink deepened. “I thought there was a wedding night scene in here…”

“That’s in _Paradise._ ” He sat next to her on the bed. 

She let the book close and looked down on it. “Oh. I guess that makes sense…” Her fingers gripped the book tightly for a moment and she suddenly looked up at him. Her bright green eyes were full of determination. “There’s something… something I don’t know how to ask… something I just have to try…”

Kakashi’s mouth was dry. Sakura set the book to the side and sat up. Slowly, slowly, she maneuvered herself into his lap, straddling his hips. Her hands reached up, and her fingertips rested on his cheekbones. His heart was thudding in his chest and his Rinnegan told him hers was quickened as well. The small, soft fingertips hooked into the edge of the cloth and lowered it down, where it pooled under his chin.

It had been well over a year since she first saw his face, but her eyes widened like she had never seen him before. Sakura pulled her hands back, then one stopped and returned, the thumb caressing his beauty mark and sliding up to the corner of his mouth. Her own lips were parted, and he saw her tongue dart out to moisten them.

And then her mouth was coming closer. He closed his eyes and they kissed.

It was tender and quiet, so quiet that he felt like the blood rushing in his ears was drowning out even the crackle of the fireplace. His fingers clenched on the sheets. She was leaning into the kiss now, her breasts were rubbing against his chest. Kakashi only realized he had forgotten to breathe when he suddenly broke the kiss and took a sharp, shaky gasp of air.

Sakura pulled back and his eyes fluttered open. She looked shyly happy. His own mouth, without any choice on his part, pulled into a smile that probably made him look completely ridiculous, but there was no room in his heart to care. It was too full.

“I should have known,” he said, “that you’d be the one brave enough to confess.”

A laugh burst from her with the pent-up tension from all it must have cost her to dare to do it. “Yeah, well, you do tend to be late.”

“I love you,” he said. “I’m in love with you. I’m sorry. I should have told you before… I should have told you every day since that first day you came back from Suna…”

“I love you too,” she whispered. “I… I _want_ you. In that way. In every way.”

He shifted his balance onto one hand so he could caress her pink hair. It was still a bit stiff from the hair product that hadn’t entirely brushed out, but he didn’t care. “I’ve been wanting that too,” he said, “but I was… I didn’t want to…” Kakashi searched for the right word. The problem was that there were too many—he didn’t want to pressure her, didn’t want to scare her, didn’t want to taint her, didn’t want to disappoint her… “I didn’t want to ruin things. Being with you, just the way we were, was so much better than anything I had expected in my life. And, uh… I’ve never exactly… been with a woman before…” He blushed.

“I thought you might be gay at first,” she confessed with a giggle.

He blinked. “Me? With all the _Icha Icha_ I read?!”

“Overcompensating,” she offered. “But you never really seemed to be interested in men either that I could tell, so I figured out pretty quickly that that wasn’t it.”

“I don’t know what I am exactly. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to, uh,” The blush deepened and his voice raised in pitch a little. “You know.”

She giggled again. “You are so cute.” She leaned in, and they were kissing again, and then he was pretty sure that they had progressed into full-on _making out._ Tongues came into play, her fingers were weaving desperately in his hair, while his hand gripped her hip as she slowly ground into him. His cock was hardening, bulging up against her, and the whole scenario was more erotic than anything he’d ever read in _Icha Icha._

She started opening up his buttons, pausing only to let him pull her shirt off. Rather than a bra or chest bindings, she had on a kind of slip, which surprised him, and she must have noticed because she flushed.

“I don’t really need a bra… so I just left the top part of my _juban_ on,” she said, referring to the traditional kimono undergarments. Her gaze slid to the side, embarrassment coming up like a wall between them.

“Sakura,” he said, and repeated it again so that she returned her gaze to him. “Sakura.”

He reached around behind her to untie the sash, unwrapping her like a present, revealing to him the body that was perfect to him because it was perfectly Sakura.

“Sakura,” he murmured, running his scarred and callused hands over the soft curves of her small breasts, watching in fascination as the nipples pebbled up at his fingertips. Kakashi’s hands departed her breasts only with reluctance, but even more than he wanted to explore them, he wanted to allow himself to look at all of her. He undid her pants button and was gratified when she raised herself up onto her knees for him to unzip and pull pants and underwear off her bottom.

Sakura lowered herself down and back down his legs to give him room to maneuver the pants off her legs entirely. He tossed them impatiently to the side, then shrugged off his unbuttoned top and pulling off his pants to do likewise.

Her embarrassment was gone; she was licking her lips and he could hardly believe that he was the inspiration for the intense lust in her gaze. “I want you.”

“I want you too,” he confessed, “but, uh, since I’ve never done this before, it may not be that good…”

“Aren’t you’re good at everything?” she teased, creeping up to him, half nervous and half predatory.

“There’s always a first time.” Without the restraint of underwear and pants, as she straddled his hips, he was jutting directly up against her, the head of his cock brushing against slick skin. Just that touch felt amazing. “Speaking of first times… this is yours as well…”

“Well, between instinct, _Icha Icha,_ and anatomy lessons, I think we can figure it out.” She rocked against him. Fuck, he wasn’t sure how Jiraiya-sama went on and on for pages in all the sex scenes. He felt like he was going to blast off like a rocket any second.

“Let me take care of you first,” he said.

She laid back semi-propped on her own arms and the buckwheat pillows, a bit more nervous now, but his own anxiety was nearly absent. A good deal of his success in training and battle was an ability to throw himself into a situation all-out. This was a mission with a clearly defined objective.

Her body reflexively jerked a little as his fingers parted her labia, and he could hear her forcing slower, deeper breaths as he took a moment just to savour the musky aroma. Kakashi gave an experimental lick. Sakura jerked again, but the little moan she let out encouraged him to keep going. He gripped her thighs and began slowly, simply exploring her with his tongue until it seemed like the only remaining tension was that of anticipation—then he zeroed in on her clit and began to suck it.

“Ah!” she squealed, and continued to moan and jerk while his hands kept her exactly where he wanted her. “Ka-kakashi! M-more!”

More? He let go of one thigh and placed his thumb at her entrance, inserting no more than a few centimetres, rubbing gently.

“Y-yes! _Yes!”_ Those were the last coherent words out of her for a while, especially when he added another finger to further stretch her entrance. He watched enthralled as she writhed with the pleasure _he_ was giving her. Her orgasm face of ecstacy filled him with pride.

Kakashi pulled back and sat up on his knees to regard her with satisfaction as she lay panting in the afterglow, her eyes closed. Never had a mission accomplished felt quite this rewarding.

She stretched as she opened her eyes. “Wow. Um. I feel like I wet the bed,” she confessed, blushing.

“I don’t think it’s urine,” he said with a smile. “Anyway, I’ll sleep in the wet spot. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.”

Sakura laughed and reached out to encourage him into her embrace. He was eager to comply. His own erection was harder than ever, but he didn’t exactly know how to bring it up. That did _not_ seem like the gentlemanly thing to do.

“Do you want to try me on top?” she said hesitantly. “I know I don’t have a hymen, but this way you won’t have to worry about hurting me at all—since I know you will.”

He didn’t bother contradicting her. She knew him completely, after all. “Okay.”

Kakashi rolled onto his back and now it was his turn to be a bundle of nerves and anticipation as she straddled him. After eating her out, she was practically dripping. She steadied herself with a hand on his chest while she reached down with the other to grip him and guide him to her slit. Their eyes locked. He heard her exhale, and slowly, she lowered herself onto him.

It was incredible. She was gripping onto him, yet sliding around him, so warm, so wet. She moaned, and he could feel fluttering around his cock. Her other small hand joined the first on his chest. With her hands close together, her upper arms pressed her breasts together and jutted them out, accentuating them as she began to rock up and down on him.

“Fuck, you’re so good Sakura,” he moaned. It was too much. He wanted to sit up and nibble at those delightfully peaked nipples, he wanted to kiss her, he wanted to run his hands along her gently, he wanted to spank that tightly muscled ass and urge her faster, and it all just felt so, so, so, so, _so_ —

His hips thrust up powerfully without conscious volition as he came inside her. Then he stopped, but she just kept going, and it was absolutely mind-blowing how intense the pleasure was. It was _too_ good, to the point of being painful.

“Ss… stop,” he gasped.

She paused abruptly, looking surprised and a little concerned.

“T-too… too sensitive,” he explained. “Ah! Ah.”

He sighed, and she smiled again, then looked around.

“Oh, great,” she said. “We don’t have anything in reach to clean up. I don’t suppose that the Rinnegan…?”

“My grasp of the attracting and repelling power is a bit imprecise,” he reminded her. “Especially after that. I’d probably bring the entire cabin crashing in on us.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that,” she sighed. “Change of sheets?”

“That we can do, but… my god, Sakura, aren’t you tired?”

“No, I feel great.” She pulled off of him and stretched.

He felt not gentlemanly at all as he told her the location of the change of sheets and did no more than roll off the futon to let her change them, but Sakura was at her most businesslike and he knew better than to try to “help” her when she was in her element like that. This was the trait that made both her and Tsunade the terrors of the hospital.

When all was fresh and the fire jutsu in the fireplace modified to provide less light, they cuddled up together. Kakashi could barely keep his eyes open, but he had one question to ask.

“Sakura… are you using some kind of contraception?”

“No, but I know I’ve already ovulated a few days ago. The egg only lives for twenty-four hours at most, so it’s impossible. As for the larger issue… of course we’ll have to discuss it…”

“Morning,” he mumbled.

She kissed the mole by his mouth. “In the morning then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go I think! Thanks for everyone supporting me with your kudos and comments. :)


	7. Chapter 7

He hadn’t been late to something for a while, much too long, so it gave Kakashi considerable satisfaction to know that they were going to be late getting back to Konoha, and for such a reason.

“Your cock feels so amazing,” Sakura moaned as she pushed her hips back to meet his every thrust. “You’re completely filling me up… I love being fucked by you so much…”

She was observant, his wife. He’d always prided himself on his powers of observation, even before he became _Kakashi of the Sharingan, the Copy Ninja_ , and the Rinnegan ought to have given him all the data he needed, but he wasn’t yet satisfied with his ability to give Sakura pleasure. She, however, seemed to have figured out all his buttons immediately—buttons he didn’t even know were there, in some cases—and what order to push them in.

“Keep fucking me, it feels so good… you’re perfect, mm!” She rippled around him.

“Fuck,” he gasped, gripping his nails into her waist. “You’re going to make me cum.”

“Yes, please, Kakashi, it feels so good when you cum inside me… I want to be filled with your cum…”

“Oh _fuck_ …” He looked down at where his cock was sliding in and out of her and that was his final undoing, seeing their connection, himself slick with her desire for him, all for him.

Afterwards they were curled into each other, and she brushed sweaty locks off his forehead and whispered, “So sexy,” with a smile.

Kakashi’s face flushed a bit, but he didn’t bother stuttering out belated denials of his value, like he had the first few times she praised him during sex. He _was_ a quick learner, at least. When he was out of his head with pleasure, he enjoyed her adoration… more than enjoyed, he _got off_ on it. He was normally so uncomfortable with praise, yet being lavished with affection by her was such sensuous decadence.

“I love you,” she cooed. “Let’s take a quick shower before we leave. I’m glad I have medical jutsu for soreness, otherwise after this week I don’t know if I could walk, much less run back to Konoha.”

“Flatterer.”

She stuck out her tongue. “Realist!”

———-

“You know, sometimes I really don’t understand you, Sakura-chan.” Naruto was lying on his back on the tatami mat, twirling a chopstick in his fingers impatiently as he waited the three minutes for the cup of instant ramen that sat in the middle of the table of the kotatsu to finish cooking. “You wanted me to move on, right?”

“I don’t want you to give up on your dreams,” Sakura replied testily, frowning as she looked through Naruto’s medical file, which she had lifted from the hospital records room.

“Same fucking thing,” Naruto muttered, flicking the chopstick into the air and catching it with the other hand.

"It isn't the same thing at all.” Sakura moved her pencil back and forth, hovering the point over various areas, perhaps cross-referencing. “Ok, so, we’ve identified me, Kakashi, Iruka-sensei, Sandaime-sama, Tsunade-shishou, Jiraiya-sama, Shikamaru, Hinata, Yondaime-sama, Kushina-sama, and… and Sasuke-kun. So I think there are three unaccounted for: _what a stupid thing to say_ ,” one finger, “ _I have no choice_ ,” two fingers, “and then… the gibberish.”

“Great dream material dattebayo.”

It was disheartening to see Naruto so cynical. It was like the sun suddenly deciding to shine a different colour light. 

“Wait a minute wait a minute,” Sakura interrupted. She lifted up a scroll and turned it, and Kakashi, lounging with Cowboy as a backrest (the dog had grown nearly as large as his father Bull already), glanced over to see that it was a diagram of a person. “Naruto, sit up and take your shirt off.”

Naruto muttered a bit, but sat up and did as she asked. Sakura ran her hands over his shoulders, bending over to scrutinize the gibberish written across them. “Pa-pa-pa-pa-to-to-to-pa-pa-pa-da-da-da-da-ba,” she read aloud, then again, “Pa-pa-pa-pa… to-to-to… pa-pa-pa… da-da-da-da… ba…”

“Yeah, apparently one of my soulmates doesn’t speak Japanese, so what?”

“You’re right and wrong, Naruto, I think!” She looked up and caught Kakashi’s gaze, tearing him away from the description of the hero’s cock sliding between Junko’s breasts. “Or, rather, it’s not they don’t speak Japanese, it’s that they’re learning Japanese. Four or five of them, I think!”

“Five of them? But my shoulder’s one is all one colour, isn’t it?” He twisted his head, looking down at his own shoulders and attempting to see behind his own neck.

“They’re very similar but I think they’re not quite the same! You know what I think these are, Naruto? I think these are _babies!_ ”

Naruto frowned. “You mean they’re people I met when they were babies? Well how am I supposed to figure out who they are dattebayo!”

Sakura growled, clenched, and unclenched her fist. “ _Think_ , Naruto. Pa-pa-pa-pa…. to-to-to… what are the babies trying to say?”

The whiskered face remained scrunched in thought, and Sakura prompted further. “Papa… tou-chan…?”

Naruto’s face went blank and wide all at once. “You mean… Sakura-chan... you think… me… a father dattebayo?”

“Heaven save them,” muttered Kakashi, and Sakura shot him a deadly glance.

“ _Not_ the time, Kakashi.”

“That was a sincere prayer.”

———

The Intelligence Committee meeting had abruptly paused when a message arrived via bird, saying that Shiho had decoded something she wished to bring to the Committee immediately and personally.

“Is that going to be a problem?” Ino nudged Shikamaru, who was sitting next to her.

“Why would it be a problem?”

“Because you refuse to pick a lane!” She nudged him again, and he wiggled away boyishly, the two of them reverting to an obviously well-worn behaviour pattern.

“Troublesome…”

“Don’t give me that! If you didn’t say it so much you wouldn't be in this mess to begin with!”

“I’m not discussing this here. Shiho will be professional. Unlike some.”

Ibiki snorted, and Ino shot him a look. “Whose side are you on, Morino-san?”

“Practice the intelligence gathering another time, Ino.”

Shiho was professional when she came in, if a bit tense. The content of her decoded message would have made any shinobi tense at any time, but especially now, in this new, fragile peace. Kurotsuchi of Iwa wanted assistance from Konoha in eliminating some vocal opponents to her elevation to the rank of Tsuchikage. In return, and in advance, she was prepared to release a prisoner to Konoha’s custody…

Kakashi looked up from the document in disbelief. “Iwa has an Uzumaki? Could that be true?”

He looked hardest at the oldest person in the room, the only one who was a jounin when Uzushio, the clan home of the Uzumaki, fell. Shikamaru’s grand-uncle Susumu sighed. He hated that the war death tolls had forced him out of retirement, and while he did his duty well, he always did it with an air of dejection that made Shikamaru look chipper. 

“The search effort for survivors went on for years. We sent relief immediately because of our alliance, but the continuing searches were more motivated by fear about what would happen if something should happen to Kushina-san. The Uzumaki make especially good jinchuuriki, as you know. It was the beginning of that time when all the countries along the coast lost their minds, and began slaughtering anyone with bloodline abilities. The Uzumaki were particularly vulnerable to an attack by civilians because their primary offensive jutsu is the chakra chains. Even so, I was told the devastation was incredible. Like—” he hesitated a moment—“like the Uchiha Massacre, honestly. It was an overnight thing. Uzushio was there and communicating with us normally one day and the next day we got one emergency hawk requesting help and by the time anyone got there… just… slaughter.”

“The Uchiha Massacre was an inside job,” said Kakashi. “What about the non-Uzumaki shinobi of Uzushio?”

Susumu’s puzzled frown indicated he had no idea.

“Let’s table that. Shikamaru, go through the records regarding the initial relief mission and all search and rescue missions you can find, and present a summary at the next meeting, with a particular eye to how an Uzumaki might have ended up in Iwa.”

“Hai, Hokage-sama.”

Back to the letter. It was cagey about this supposed Uzumaki, only saying that Kurotsuchi had the ability to get the Uzumaki into neutral territory of Ame, where Konoha could retrieve the person and receive further information about the assassination targets.

“I can’t believe you’re even considering this,” said a Sarutobi elder. “She’s asking us to commit an act of war against Iwa.”

“No,” said Kakashi, “she’s asking us to get involved in a civil war within Iwa.”

“I beg your pardon, Hokage-sama, but I think that’s just as bad.”

“It’s an enormous difference,” said Shikamaru. “If Kurotsuchi is willing to reach out to us blind, then she’s already committed to the limit, including outright insurrection. Deaths are coming, in other words—the question is whose and how many.”

“So much for peace,” muttered Susumu.

———

“Welcome, come in. How about we play Go tonight?”

Shikamaru looked over at the already prepared Go board, then over at Kakashi, who had shut the door and was waiting to take his coat. Shikamaru gave him the coat and sat down to undo his boots. “Alright.”

“You don’t mind if I play black?”

“Not at all.” Shikamaru placed his shoes on the rack and strolled over to the kotatsu and sat down, snugly arranging the blanket around his hips and giving a little sigh at the pleasant warmth. “Sakura’s working?”

“Aa. Tea?”

“Please.”

With the deaths of his father and Asuma, Kakashi was one of the few people in the village able to give Shikamaru a challenge in any sort of strategy game. They usually met once or twice a month. Sometimes they discussed village business, but tonight Kakashi had a more personal object in mind.

He brought it up abruptly after filling the tea cups. “Shikamaru. As Hokage, I should urge you to pursue Temari. But I suggest Shiho.”

The rest of the game was silent, but as they placed and removed stones, Kakashi knew that Shikamaru was running through exactly what Kakashi meant and understanding it perfectly.

Shikamaru had a common problem: his soulmark was a very common phrase. Kakashi didn’t know what exactly it was, but apparently it could easily apply to both of the women who had (of course) “troublesome” written somewhere on them.

If Kankurou’s children by Hinata had the Byakugan, then by the terms of the marriage agreement, the children were to live in Konoha from the time they entered the academy until they passed the chuunin exam. The argument being that only in Konoha could their Byakugan be trained. But also granting the Hyuuga clan and Konoha enormous influence over them.

Kazekage was a semi-hereditary position, with only descendents of the First Kazekage eligible, and like so many other powerful clans, the number had dwindled to merely Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. 

Under traditional shinobi philosophy, Shikamaru should abandon all thought of his own desires and diligently seduce her, so as to further ensure that any possible future Kazekage by Temari’s line would also be Konoha-friendly. This was the way of thinking Shikamaru and Temari had been raised in: shinobi were tools, first and last. To boost the village was good, to harm it evil; nothing else came close.

Kakashi, the man, was acknowledging that even if Shikamaru attempted to conduct the relationship sincerely, this would inevitably taint Shikamaru’s life with Temari. Every moment would be second-guessed. Resentment and suspicion would always be threatening to take root. Even if he had genuine love for her, he would never be only himself in their relationship; he would essentially be on a permanent mission, 24/7.

“I’m home,” called Sakura as she opened the door.

“Welcome home,” answered Kakashi. “Shikamaru is here. Did you eat?”

“Yes, I ate on my break. Hello Shikamaru.”

“Hello. How is Mirai-chan?”

“You knew about that? It was just a broken wrist. I must see that injury twice a day at least. All the kids pretending they’re ninja by climbing trees and then they fall out and catch themselves on their arms—boom. Takes me only a few seconds to heal that. It’s the head injuries that make me nervous. Fortunately, she didn’t hit her head at all. She was in and out in time to make Kurenai-sensei’s lunch hectic, so don’t worry.”

“When it’s Mirai-chan I can’t help but worry. Troublesome.” He laid down a stone, playing a ko threat.

“Mirai-chan is the most parented child Konoha has ever seen,” laughed Sakura. “It’s too much for one little child to have so many uncles and aunties all to herself. She’s getting spoiled.”

“Well, that’s why living in the orphanage is good for her. When the baby comes, she’ll be used to sharing.”

Sakura abruptly stopped in the doorway where she was going towards the kitchen and turned around. “You know about that? It’s supposed to be a secret. You shouldn’t just say things like that, Shikamaru! What if I didn’t know?”

“You’re you, of course you noticed. I just wanted to bring it up in case _you_ didn’t know it was a secret.”

“What’s a secret?” Kakashi was having flashbacks to Kurenai tugging Asuma away from him in the hospital. “Kurenai’s pregnant?”

“Kakashi-sama can keep a secret.” Shikamaru carelessly played another stone, outwardly indifferent to Sakura’s enraged expression of _now see what you did._ “Anyway, he needs to know about it for when the clan starts making trouble about it.”

“You’ve played me into a corner. I concede.” Kakashi frowned at his dead stones, then sighed. He both did and did not want to know what was going on. “Kabuto’s the father?”

Shikamaru sighed, and Sakura said awkwardly, “Apparently it could be either… she said they won’t distinguish…”

“Like it won’t be obvious,” Shikamaru muttered. “If it’s Kabuto’s it’ll probably come out with scales.”

“Shikamaru!”

Kakashi laughed, and Shikamaru said, “What? I’ve been restraining myself around her, but I’m not going to deny I’m hoping like hell it’s Iruka-sensei’s.”

“But what’s with the secrecy?” Kakashi finished tidying away the go set and moved to the sofa to sit with Sakura, while Shikamaru simply lay back on the tatami mat and slid more of his body under the kotatsu, resting his head on his hands. “It’s not exactly the kind of thing a woman can hide for long, is it?”

“Konohamaru-kun will probably make chuunin at the next exam, won’t he?” said Sakura, shifting into Kakashi’s lap.

Kakashi sighed. “Well, that depends on him, doesn’t it? He’s certainly experienced with ordering around Moegi-chan and Udon-kun, but we’ll have to see how much leadership ability he demonstrates in the exam.”

Sakura bit her lip. “That’s the thing, ‘leadership ability.’”

“The Sarutobi are very unhappy about Kurenai-sensei,” said Shikamaru. “They’re making things difficult for Konohamaru-kun.”

“I knew that already,” said Kakashi slowly, “but how does Kurenai being pregnant change things?”

“They’ve been saying things to Konohamaru-kun that if he lets the situation get out of control, he’s not ready to lead the clan, and so on. Very vague, of course. But I think they would consider Kurenai-sensei’s pregnancy to be out of control. They would want to try to have his leadership placed under trust, or something. And apparently the Sarutobi clan laws assign a lot of importance to education…” Sakura was starting to babble, and Shikamaru cut her off.

“They want to take away Mirai-chan.”

Kakashi paused his idle rubbing of his thumb over Sakura’s knuckles. “But they can’t possibly think I would allow that.”

“Clan internal sovereignty,” said Shikamaru. “The same thing that keeps the Hyuuga branch family getting those cursed seals.”

“Are they still?” said Sakura. “I mean… sorry to change the subject…”

“It’s something I’ve already been working on,” Kakashi said. “It’s difficult because Hiashi has not enforced the seal for some time.”

“He hasn’t removed them either,” retorted Shikamaru.

“Indeed.”

“Can they be removed?” Sakura’s eyes widened.

“Any seal can be unsealed,” said Kakashi. “But it’s usually more difficult to untie a knot than to tie it, especially if you don’t know how it was tied. Removing a seal is even more than that, usually. Some combination between untying a knot, picking a lock, deactivating a trap, and breaking a genjutsu.”

“So can something be done?”

“Something will have to be done. _Too much_ has to be done. Now you’re telling me we’re on the clock to finish it. I was trying to give the clan heads rope to hang themselves. Now we’ve got to take the rope and set a snare with it.” Kakashi closed his eyes, mind running through possibilities.

“Troublesome.” Shikamaru pulled his arms out from behind his head and made his focusing symbol over his abdomen.

Sakura looked from one man to the other, shook her head, and decided to shower.

———

Uzumaki Tena came back from Ame with a Konoha ANBU mask over her face. According to Yamato, Konan said her breakout from house arrest in Iwa went “slightly awry,” but ultimately all for the better, as Tena herself was the only one seen killing Iwa shinobi; therefore the reigning theory in the inner circles of Iwa was that she was working alone, with no motivation other than a desire for freedom. This would make it easier for Kurotsuchi to offer her amnesty when she took over, since Konoha would have merely been taking in a refugee. But for the time being, of course, her presence in the Land of Fire had to be top-secret.

“I don’t like this, sempai—Hokage-sama,” Yamato said when he finished his report, his uneasiness evidently carrying him back to old speech habits.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, Tenzou, but _please_ call me sempai.”

Yamato’s face broke into a wide grin. “Sure, sempai—but it’s Yamato now!”

Kakashi raised a single finger and slouched in his chair. “Focus. What’s the rotten point?”

“Oh, the plan will work as far as it goes,” Yamato said. “Konoha is making out like a bandit, in fact. Of course she’ll make modifications once she comes to power, but some of the information she passed us about secret entrances and weak points in Iwa’s defences—it’s important infrastructure. If we had another war—”

“Ah, but that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? Kurotsuchi felt confident in giving this information to us _because_ there will not be another war. Not of that kind. Thanks to Naruto.”

Yamato frowned. “That’s what I thought, but if she’s already starting a civil war, sempai…”

“This is no different than what happened to the Land of Water daimyo, Yamato. This isn’t war… it’s…” An image of his Rinnegan’s original owner flashed before his eyes, yet Kakashi had to use the term. “It’s revolution.”

“But how can you be sure it won’t become war?”

“On that front, I believe in Naruto,” Kakashi said quietly but with utter sincerity. “I believe in the change he set in motion. But that change is a entirely new way of thinking, an entirely new way of making decisions. Some people who did well under the old system will resist that, just as there was resistance to developing bonds between clans and making villages in the first place.”

“And so we kill the ones that resist?”

“Not necessarily. There is only one way out of this that I can see, Yamato, and that’s to think long term.”

“I see.” Thick fingers traced the delicate edges of the cat mask. Yamato looked down at the blank eyeholes unhappily. “But that isn’t what I don’t like. It’s… this Uzumaki woman.”

“Do you need more staff to keep control of her?”

“No… I mean, perhaps more frequent shift changes would be useful, but I’m confident about our ability to keep tabs on her. What I mean is… I only spoke with her a little, sempai, but she was born in Iwa and lived her entire life imprisoned, and now it’s as if… she’s being _sold_ to us like a slave, sempai.”

“I can understand your misgivings,” said Kakashi. “She told me she is willing to live in Konoha and become a Konoha shinobi. I promised that when Iwa gave the word she could live freely and independently and while she seemed pleased, it was mostly a non-reaction. She seems content in servitude.”

“But that doesn't mean that it’s right. She’s a human being, not a tool.” He was still talking to the mask in his hands.

Kakashi could see the pain in his face, a old, deep wound that had scarred over but was still tender to the touch.

Shinobi as human beings, not tools; human beings having rights, not just benefits and liabilities for the village; for Yamato, of all people, to say it outright…

It really is revolution.

———

Kakashi wanted nothing more than to pull open his bedroom window and climb into bed with Sakura, but unfortunately there was no sneaking into a room without waking her up, even with his skills. He was glad of it, really, since he would never want Sakura to be caught unawares by an enemy, but he didn’t want to wake her up tonight. When Shikamaru had come in the morning with his tea and a report about the unexpected C-rank mission gone wrong, she was already operating on the surviving genin. Kakashi got the report that the genin were successfully saved more than eight hours later, along with a note that Sakura-sama had been treated for mild chakra exhaustion and sent home by Shizune-san.

It was almost ten o’clock and he could see his breath in the moonlight of the frosty January night as he perched in a tree with a good view into their bedroom window. She had left a reading light on, and she was curled up in bed with a medical tome directly next to her on the pillow. To his relief, his Rinnegan allowed him to see that she hadn’t dipped into her forehead seal reserves, so it could not have been as bad as he feared. Still, her natural reserves were almost gone, and that after Shizune’s treatment. He had asked Tsunade to come in the next morning, so he hoped he could persuade Sakura not to rush in to see how her patients were doing, or use the “extra time” to check on one of her other pet projects like the vaccination program or the children’s mental health facility.

_“I can’t believe clients still lie like this dattebayo! Remember, sensei? Sasuke coulda died—Haku coulda died! ‘Cause neither of our clients told us the truth! And here we are years later and what’s changed? That kid shouldn’t have died!”_

_“You had one of those missions too, huh? I remember ours. Asuma-sensei told the client we couldn’t do it… I remember she was screaming and begging us to…” Shikamaru shifted. “I don’t like to think about it, to be honest.”_

_“And now Sakura-chan’s gonna be working herself til she passes out saving the others… It just isn’t fair.”_

_Kakashi said, “But what can they do, Naruto? Civilians are utterly defenseless against missing nin, and if they don’t have the money to get sufficient help, they’re going to get whatever they can get, because what else can they do? Give up?”_

_“But… we’ve got to think about the village… Hokage-sama.” Shikamaru’s voice was slow and unconvinced, testing each word as he said it._

_“I’d much rather have done that mission for free so nobody had to die dattebayo!”_

_Kakashi played with his wedding ring. “We can’t do missions for free… but we have to think about more than the village, if we truly want peace…”_

_“Shouldn’t the daimyos be doing more about this? I mean, what else are they there for dattebayo!”_

_Shikamaru and Kakashi both looked at Naruto._

_“Sorry… I’m just frustrated. I know I’m not good at the politics stuff…”_

_“No, Naruto,” said Kakashi. “That’s exactly why I want you around.”_

In the tree, watching Sakura’s chest rise and fall, Kakashi brooded for a moment longer. He _might_ be able to sneak into the bathroom and shower without waking her; then she’d only get woken up once. But if she perceived the intrusion and he was masking his chakra to keep her from waking up, that would certainly panic and disturb her overall much more than two brief awakenings. He decided to go in through their bedroom so the interval from alarm to reassurance would be as brief as possible.

She snapped awake as he landed on the windowsill, then relaxed almost the same moment. Sakura yawned and stretched as Kakashi pulled open the window and slipped through, closing it behind him.

“Late night?” She picked up the book and set it on the night table. “Everything alright?”

“I had to arrange some things. Long, but dull.” The last thing he wanted was to get Sakura worked up into a discussion when she needed her rest. He set his shoes carelessly on the shelf and walked towards the door. “I’ll just shower and get to bed myself.”

“Mm,” she responded sleepily.

When he came back to the bed, however, Sakura caressed him in a manner that was anything _but_ sleepy.

“You need your rest,” he said as his traitorous body responded.

“Oh please,” she scoffed. “I didn’t even dip into my seal. Shizune-sempai is just a worrywart.” She dipped the caress lower, lower. “I need _rejuvenation_.”

“You’re going in late tomorrow,” he bargained.

“Mm,” she said, sitting up and pulling her nightgown off. “If we can do this again?”

“Sounds win-win to me,” he said, yanking his own shirt off smoothly.

As he started pulling off his pants, she said, “Oh, uh…” Her formerly smooth and seductive manner was suddenly awkward and stiff. “Uh, before we begin, I should probably mention I am probably fertile right now.”

He blinked, pants around his knees. “But we talked about that, right?”

“Right, but, there’s a difference between ‘well we’ll just let whatever happens, happen naturally’ and ‘I am positive my right ovary is preparing to release an egg, which will be fertilized if we have sex now,’” she said, looking down at her abdomen as if she could see through the skin to the ovary in question. “Being a medic-nin has drawbacks in the ‘just forget about it and relax’ department.”

“Are you getting cold feet?”

“No—I just wanted to make sure you weren’t—plus I felt like, if I knew and I didn’t say something, it would be kind of… I don’t know… trapping you or something.”

He pulled her into a hug, and she relaxed into his embrace, with a little sigh, laying her head on his shoulder.

“Minato-sensei—when he gave me the talk—he said to always assume having sex would end up with the girl getting pregnant. Also to never have sex with anyone I wouldn’t trust to shave my neck with a straight razor.”

“Is that how you get it so smooth?” She ran her thumb along his jawline, then her seductive expression broke and she started giggling.

“What?”

“Naruto’s father gave you _the talk_?” she laughed, sitting back and pulling a knee up to lean on for support for her mirth. “He didn’t give you his sensei’s books, did he?”

“No, I found those later.”

She laughed some more, apparently really amused at the idea. “Oh wow. Sorry. Just the idea is…”

“I was very different back then,” he reminded her. “All he had to say was ‘vulnerability’ and I immediately decided it was something I would never do.”

That sobered her. “Mm. I guess so.” She rested her chin on her knee.

“Did Kurenai give you the talk?”

“Yeah. So did my mom. And Tsunade-shishou. And Shizune. They all had very different ideas though. And then, I suppose, you.”

“Me?!”

She had on a sly look. Was it just a joke? “Oh yes. Yondaime-sama missed a trick, you know. Those books are _very_ educational.”

Kakashi felt his cheeks getting hot, but a slow smile was spreading as well. “Uh, that’s true, isn’t it. I mean, of course, the best part is the drama and the story, but…”

“I really liked how _Tactics_ emphasized that stretching the entrance, stroking the top wall, and frequent attention to the clit were the fundamental elements to a good fingerbang,” she said matter-of-factly. “You have no idea how many of my friends are dealing with guys who think it’s some kind of contest for how many times you can hit the cervix in one minute. Jiraiya-sama might have made a good medic, he clearly had good observational skills.”

“As much as I admire Jiraiya-sama,” he said, moving a hand along her thigh, “I’d rather be the only one you’re thinking about when my fingers are inside you.”

“You are,” she moaned as she shifted to allow him entrance—slowly scissoring as he pushed with two fingers, before switching to a stroking gesture just inside as his thumb applied slow, relentless pressure to her pearl. Sakura squirmed and whimpered, gripping his shoulder as her hips moved. They moved together, turning so that she was on her back on the bed and he was hovering over her, playing her like as instrument as he kissed her passionately.

He broke the kiss and nuzzled her face, wanting to hear her more than he wanted to kiss her right now. “Is it good?”

“So, so, good, it’s so good, Kakashi,” she mewled. “Ah, no, please, ah—”

“Too much?”

“ _More,_ ” she moaned.

There was one easy answer for that. His lips closed over a nipple and soon she was praising his name as she shivered beneath him, leaving his fingers glossy and his cock hard.

“Fuck me,” she panted. “You’ve worn me out, so fuck me as hard as you want.”

God, this woman. He didn’t have to be told twice. Kakashi started pounding her into the mattress, absolutely loving her weak little scratches at his arms and the velvet slickness of her. Seeing this amazingly strong woman with her eyes glassy and her hair mussed, just from his fingers, hearing her moan, “Oh God, I’m close, I’m gonna cum again, Kakashi, you’re going to make me cum again—”

After, he ran his fingers down again across her vulva, feeling the mingling of their orgasms.

“I really loooooove you,” she said, sleepily and all the cuter for that.

“Sakura,” he murmured back into her hair. Her name was the same as _I love you_ to him.

———

“You kept me waiting over three hours!” The Daimyo’s voice wanted to be haughty and commanding, but instead it was cracking with repressed fear. “Who do you think you are?”

“I am the Hokage,” said Kakashi pleasantly. “I am Hatake Kakashi of the Rinnegan. And these are my assistants, Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, and Nara Shikamaru, Chief Strategist of the Leaf and Master of Shadow Jutsu.”

“Hey!” said Naruto, in good cheer.

“Pleased to meet you,” said Shikamaru, rote and lazy.

“Any of the three of us could have killed you before you were even aware we had ill-intent,” Kakashi continued, and the Daimyo stiffened, eyes darting to his bodyguards—who were, of course, Konoha ninja before they were the Twelve Guardians. “Your bodyguards wouldn’t stop us, even supposing they could. When it comes to Naruto and myself, in fact, if either of us decided to raze the capital city, it would take the entirety of the shinobi world together to oppose us. Do you understand what I’m telling you? The relationship between the Fire Daimyo and Konoha can’t remain what it was a century ago. We are not hired hands begging for your continued patronage. To continue pretending we are is a farce.”

Sweat was beading on the daimyo’s pasty face. “Why are you telling me this? You intend to make me a puppet like in the Land of Wind?”

“As it happens, I didn’t have any interest in being ruler of even Konoha, much less the Land of Fire. If I can delegate the business of governing the rest of the country to you, I will be very pleased. But I thought we should get the direction of authority clear. We won’t be financially beholden on anyone’s whims, first of all. This business where you give us a mission and pay us upon completion—it doesn’t work for us anymore. This is a very peaceful world and we’d like it to stay that way. I’m sure you do as well?”

“Uh… yes.”

Naruto grinned and ran his tongue over his fangs. “‘Yes, Hokage-sama,’ dattebayo!”

“Y-yes, Hokage-sama.”

———

“Oh—good morning Hokage-sama.”

“Good morning, Iruka-sensei.” The younger man looked harassed, and Kakashi couldn’t resist seeing how far he would jump at a poke. “Ready for the audit?”

To Kakashi’s immature pleasure, Iruka literally jumped in his seat. “The audit?! What—no—I hadn’t—”

“Well, good, because it’s not scheduled today,” Kakashi said blithely, taking a seat next to Iruka. “Sandaime-sama used to sit in at mission intake sessions quite a bit, didn’t he?”

“Ah—yes, yes he did,” said Iruka, still clearly rattled.

“You really do so much for the village, Iruka-sensei.” Iruka didn’t look pleased; he looked confused. “At the academy five days a week, here at the mission desk on weekends, and now you’re really full-time at the orphanage, too, aren’t you?”

“Ah, well, actually, I’m only a substitute at the academy now,” he said. “Because of the staff cuts.”

Kakashi hummed, looking through a number of D-rank requests idly. “Well, just wait a few years and we’ll need to expand the school back to what it was when we were young, hmm?”

Iruka looked really panicked at that, and Kakashi realized that Iruka might have thought that Kakashi was obliquely referring to Kurenai’s pregnancy, their desperately kept secret. As much as he loved setting people off, he did not actually want to terrify the man. Kakashi crinkled his eyes kindly. “Everything will be just fine, I’m sure.”

Iruka relaxed, although he still wasn’t at ease. “Hai, Hokage-sama.”

A two-man team came in just then, and Kakashi looked up to see it was two of the oldest genin in Konoha: Akado Manabu, and his father-in-law.

“Good morning, Akado-san, Haruno-san,” said Iruka in a tone of basic routine, but he glanced over at Kakashi before continuing. “No trouble?”

There was a moment of silence, and Akado-san glanced at Haruno-san before finally speaking. “No, everything was fine. Good morning, Hokage-sama.”

“Good morning, Akado-san,” said Kakashi. He vaguely remembered that Akado-san had graduated the academy the same year as him—only Kakashi was six and Akado-san must have been at least sixteen. He turned towards the other man who was still hanging back stiffly and awkwardly. “Good morning, otou-san.”

Haruno-san cleared his throat. “Good morning, Hokage-sama. The mission was a success, and we have the report and the payment.” He at last stepped forward and presented two envelopes politely, with two hands, although the depth of his bow could best be described as vestigial.

Iruka began to speak and to reach out to take them, but Kakashi both talked over him and took the envelopes, setting them down in front of Iruka as he said, “I’m glad to see you, otou-san. I believe we should have a little talk. Over tea, in my office?” He spoke politely, but without any little niceties of language that would allow any escape.

His father-in-law apparently took it as the command that it was. “Hai, Hokage-sama.”

An eye crinkle smile. “I’ll see you there.” The clone dismissed himself with a bang.

In the Hokage office, Kakashi paused mid-sentence to assimilate his clone’s memories, ending with the pleasant final memory of three shocked men reacting to the bang. “Never mind about the letter to Mifune,” Kakashi said, “I have a personal meeting. Would you order tea for two, Shikamaru, and then take a break? Oh, and send a bird to Naruto that I won’t need him until after lunch. Actually, you can wait to come back after lunch too. Maybe draw up a draft of a letter to Mifune. Ah, and tell Raidou and Genma my father-in-law will be coming in.”

“Hn. Anything else? Make your dentist appointment? Shovel the roof?” January had roared in with one of the worst snowstorms Konoha had gotten for a few years.

Kakashi had already pulled out _Icha Icha Violence._ “Maa, if you’re offering…”

“I’ll see about that letter.”

The Hokage waved without taking his eyes off the page.

Genma escorted Sakura’s father in while Raidou carried the tea tray. When his bodyguards had retreated to a discreet distance—even if they could certainly overhear what was being said—Kakashi began, “This is awkward, isn’t it?”

Haruno-san’s mouth stayed a thin unhappy line for a moment, then opened to speak. “What do you want from me, Hokage-sama?”

“I admit I did pull a little with my official weight to get you here,” Kakashi said, pouring the tea for his guest, “but I would like this to be a personal meeting. You are Sakura’s father, and I am Sakura’s husband. But we don’t know each other at all.”

Haruno-san’s mouth was in the thin unhappy line again, and it twitched a little.

“My mother first, and then my father died when I was still a child,” Kakashi began.

“I know who you are,” Haruno-san interjected into the pause. “Not that it means anything. Everyone in the world knows who you are. But I remember when your father died. I was a shinobi for this village when it happened. Everyone knew the White Fang, too.”

Kakashi turned this over in his mind. He had brought his past up to appeal to his father-in-law to cherish bonds that death could separate at any moment, but it seemed instead to have only increased the tension. Kakashi was the Hokage and Haruno-san was a lifelong genin. Not only was the power difference enormous, but the Hokage could order his ninja around, and indeed, Kakashi had used that power implicitly to arrange the meeting. “As I said, this is awkward. We can’t just talk as two people, we can’t forget that I’m the Hokage and you’re one of my genin. We can’t forget that I have bodyguards who can hear what we say—although I trust their discretion. It isn’t a usual situation between a father-in-law and a son-in-law.”

Haruno-san still said nothing.

“I have to be frank. You have the wrong idea about how the relationship between us developed. I never wanted to be in a relationship with her when she was a child. I moved her off my team to avoid it. I always kept myself aloof from her. You do have a right to know that I was never sexual with her. You didn’t fail to protect her from a predator.”

The other man scoffed. “Never sexual with her? You expect me to believe that, when you moved her in with you the night of the victory?”

“You don’t have to believe me, but at that point it was not sexual. Even if it had been, however, your daughter was no longer a child at that point. She was a heroine. Sakura punched a goddess in the back of the head. I was there. You should be very proud.”

“Of course I’m proud of Sakura. But she’s always been a foolishly romantic girl. Don’t tell me I don’t know my daughter. And I know _you._ ” Haruno-san looked with disgust at the copy of _Icha Icha Violence_ on the desk. “Would Sakura have hidden the relationship from us if it wasn’t shameful?”

“She was confused—”

“Because she was a child! You should have controlled yourself, you should have had more pride, as a shinobi of Konoha! You should have thought about the Will of Fire! I don’t care if you’re _soulmates.”_ He said the word with contempt. “I didn’t marry mine and Sakura knows that very well. Soulmates aren’t an excuse for betrayal. But everyone knows the Hatake are weak-willed and indulge themselves shamelessly, then hide from the consequences.”

It had been many years since Kakashi had been mocked to his face about his father. It was a testament to the self-control he did possess that he didn’t revert to his youthful reaction of delivering a kick to any mouth that dared to use his father’s name. With his current power level, such a reaction would without doubt have left a smear where his father-in-law’s face used to be. He took a breath. “Fine. You don’t have to approve of my past behaviour with Sakura. But Sakura and I are married now. If you can’t accept that she is now a Hatake, you’re going to lose her permanently.”

Haruno-san scowled and looked away.

Kakashi continued, “I brought you here because I care about Sakura. I don’t know you or your wife, but I assume you care about her. She wants you in her life. In our children’s life, some day.” He wasn’t about to mention that day would probably be within nine months.

He left another moment for Haruno-san to speak, then said mildly, “The tea is very good, but it’s better hot than cold,” and reached for his own cup.

His father-in-law turned his gaze to his cup, and picked it up slowly. They drank tea together.


	8. Chapter 8

Uzumaki Tena looked up as the door opened. She set down her pencil and bowed as she stood up, loose red hair falling over her face like a curtain. “Hokage-sama.”

“No need to stand,” Kakashi replied, and she settled back into the chair. He took the seat opposite her as Genma and Raidou took up unobtrusive positions in the corners, Yamato’s watchful chakra creeping like tendrils over everything. “I have good news for you.”

“Oh?” She blinked. “I, uh… I was expecting to see you again much before this, to tell me what you expected from me…”

“Well, about that. Kurotsuchi has ascended to Tsuchikage now, and has followed the Mizukage’s example in offering a blanket amnesty to renew the nation. That can include you, so you can come out of hiding here and do whatever you like. We would like to offer you a position as a ninja of Konohagakure, specifically to work on some fuinjutsu issues we have, but you are free to leave and do as you wish. I am sure other hidden villages would be eager to hire you.”

She blinked again, slower this time, her large dark eyes concentrating. “But you traded for me.”

“For the opportunity of negotiation, to have you work for us of your own will,” Kakashi amended. “We have no wish to keep you as a slave.”

“The Leaf are as strange as they say,” Tena said. “Alright, Hokage-sama. What kind of ninja? A genin? Would I have my own place?”

“Technically a genin,” said Kakashi, “unless and until you took the chuunin exams. But we would place you on a salary to help us with the fuinjutsu issues I mentioned. We have some apartments you can choose from, and your salary would be sufficient for other needs, I believe.”

“Hokage-sama, since you’re being remarkably open, I must tell you that Kurotsuchi-sama probably didn’t inform you that my parents taught me very little of the fuinjutsu you’re interested in. Up until my father died seven years ago, when I was eighteen, he taught me the lore of Uzushio and all kinds of fuinjutsu, but deliberately nothing about how to contain a tailed beast. When the Tsuchikage demanded I start learning how to produce chakra chains, he killed himself. Since he died, I have focused almost all my research on soulmarks. I appeared to be learning fuinjutsu—I _was_ learning fuinjutsu—but I am not the potential weapon Iwa acquired me to become. You got a bad bargain.”

“We don’t want you for a tailed beast,” Kakashi said. “There was a man who sealed pieces of himself into others through a bite. He is able to resurrect himself through these curse seals. We want to track down anyone who has a curse seal, and to destroy him without having to destroy the host, if possible.”

She looked down at her writing and hummed. “Extracting kills the host, like a jinchuuriki?”

“Not precisely. The seal is inflicted with the end intention of being able to take over the host. Ultimately, if he fully takes over the body, it appears to kill the original host. In the instances we know of where the man has been removed, the original host suffered no lasting effects, but the man emerged willingly to take a different provided body. Also, the infliction of the seal apparently kills many; a certain amount of strength is needed to survive the… infection.”

“Infection,” she repeated. “This man… was he related to your second Hokage at all, perhaps? A student, or a student of a student?”

Kakashi’s eyes narrow. “Are you accepting my offer to become a ninja of Konoha?”

She nodded. “Yes, Hokage-sama.”

“Orochimaru was the student of the second Hokage’s student, the third Hokage.”

“Ahhh. Orochimaru… Even I’ve heard that name.” She idly picked up the brush and tapped the end of it against her lips. “…as it turns out, Hokage-sama, I am very interested in this. Especially… I would like to access the Nidaime’s records on space-time.”

———

“Good morning, sempai!”

“Good morning, Hokage-sama.” Ino rolled her eyes as Yamato hastily pulled over a chair for her. “I’m not made of glass, Yamato-kun.”

“No, no, no, of course not, Ino-chan, it’s just…” Yamato grabbed another chair and sat on the edge. “Well, it’s what we came to see you about, sempai! Ino-chan’s going to have a baby!”

“Ah? Congratulations,” said Kakashi. He pulled open a filing cabinet drawer to get the _Withdrawal from Mission Availability - Maternity_ form.

As Ino took the form, she said, “So we wanted to see you about ANBU.”

Kakashi blinked. “ANBU?”

“Well, since Yamato-kun is needed more around the village, I’ve been the one doing most of the analysis of ANBU and former Root agents outside the village,” she explained. “We’ve compiled a lot of data, Hokage-sama, and I know you’ve already approved of some of our recommendations, but someone has to continue to reconnoiter and see how the new approaches are working. Fine tuning, you know.”

“I see.” Kakashi looked out the window for a moment while Ino took the form and began filling it in. It was a rather simple form and handed back in just a moment. Kakashi skimmed it.

 _Name of kunoichi: Yamanaka Ino_  
_Father known?: Yes_  
_Name of Father: Yamanaka Yamato_  
_Estimated Date of Delivery: 20 August 408_  
_Planned Return to Mission Availability?: Yes_  
_Estimated Return to Mission Availability: 20 August 409_

Kakashi looked up. “You only want a year?”

“Well… we live with my mother, so, built-in childcare, right? And of course we would never take a mission at the same time, right Yamato-kun?”

“Of course not,” Yamato said under her gaze, then hedged, with a beseeching glance at Kakashi. “I mean, unless it was necessary for the village.”

“When it comes to InoShikaCho,” Ino said, “if a mission calls for the best, then it should be the clan leaders working together.”

Kakashi tapped on the table, but he wasn’t actually thinking about Ino and Yamato. _I just assumed that Sakura would retire from missions permanently… after all, she has enough to do at the hospital… shit, I thought we talked through it all—_

“Hokage-sama?” said Ino.

Kakashi jerked back to the topic in a rush. “Ah, naturally, naturally. Of course, InoShikaCho has long been a team that the Leaf has relied on—”

“Hokage-sama.” ANBU materialized suddenly, and nodded to their superiors. “Yamato-taichou. Ino-taichou. We’ve received an ink message from Team Sai. Main target captured alive in Wind. Some further live captures and kills. All threats neutralized. No major injuries to allied forces. Team Sai is en route with the main target and requests preparations to be made. The remaining captured targets will be processed in Suna. That is all.”

“Yamato, be ready to rendezvous with Team Sai. Ino, prepare the interrogation room. ANBU, notify the barrier team.”

———

Naruto pushed up the fox mask and dropped the hog-tied prisoner at Kakashi’s feet. “He’s inside a fucking kid,” he snarled. “That all you could catch, you scumbag?”

“Naruto, control yourself.”

Naruto’s chakra was behaving interestingly—usually Naruto’s own chakra was bright and sunny, wrapped affectionately and entangled with the mammoth, roiling presence of Kurama. Despite Kurama’s change of heart, the beast was still by far the angrier of the two, and whenever Naruto got riled up, his tailed beast’s chakra was surging right along with it, pushing it higher. But right now, Kurama’s chakra was actually pulling _back_ on Naruto’s, as if the tailed beast himself was trying to keep his host calm.

No, not calm, necessarily—that wouldn’t be Kurama’s worry, from the brief time Kakashi saw the beast. Kurama was always in favour of getting involved, just like Naruto. If Kurama was doing anything, it could only be out of concern for Naruto himself.

The prisoner took a breath like a huff, and all at once Kakashi saw the resemblance.

_He sees Sasuke. Orochimaru’s body must be about Sasuke’s age, when he left Konoha._

“Chakra cage is ready,” announced Yamato from behind a cat mask.

Kakashi nodded, and Sai stepped forward without taking off his monkey mask to untie the prisoner. He left him on the ground, but put the chair next to him, and then retreated back to the shadows, Naruto joining him.

Orochimaru rose to a kneeling posture, unhurried, and opened his serpentine eyes and scanned the room, resting longer in some places. He hadn’t gotten around to Kakashi when Kakashi said, “You won’t take a seat?”

Orochimaru did meet his eyes then. “I’ll kneel, if it’s alright with you,” he said. That strange, crooked sense of humour that could turn kneeling and conciliation into a gesture of defiance.

“Where did you bite this victim?”

“Victim?”

“I won’t play games with terms. Victim. You know what I mean.”

The young face smiled serenely. “How can there be a victim when I gave so much more than I took? The original occupant could _never_ have attained his goal without me—whereas one young body, without even any kekkei genkai, isn’t very valuable at all. Doesn’t the Leaf itself send children of this age to die every week? And on missions much less noble than my own.”

Kakashi refused to get dragged into a philosophical battle. “Where did you bite this victim?”

“I really fail to understand—”

Kakashi spoke over him. “Strip him until you find it.”

“The Leaf,” said Orochimaru as ANBU swarmed him, “should really consider that instead of foolishly wasting a repository of jutsu like myself, they could sponsor me outright—monitoring my research, of course—”

“Here it is,” said an ANBU, holding up Orochimaru’s arm by the hand. The remnants of the black cursemark were visible on the wrist.

“—to make sure it accords with your, shall we say, reservations—”

Kakashi stepped forward and stared at the mark with the Rinnegan, noting somewhere in the back of his mind the hunger plainly visible in Orochimaru’s gaze as he stared at this highest version of the Sharingan. It was definitely a lower level curse mark than the Cursed Mark of Heaven that Orochimaru had inflicted on Anko and Sasuke. Orochimaru’s chakra now appeared to be the native chakra in this body. Kakashi could faintly see the chakra of someone else, erratic and weak, never forming the majority in any one system of the body… but evidence that the original host was possibly still alive.

Orochimaru was still talking about his own value to the Leaf.

“Will you shut up or do I need to gag you?” said Kakashi bluntly.

Orochimaru shut up, with a look of utter surprise.

Naruto laughed, and even Sai’s smile had a trace of genuine amusement.

“Sai, bring in Tena. Naruto, go to the hospital and get Sakura. We might need her.”

Orochimaru didn’t speak, but his keen serpentine eyes said plenty as he took in the red-haired woman’s appearance when she arrived.

The ANBU agent held Orochimaru’s arm still as Tena examined it, although Orochimaru made no movement to escape.

“Report here, or privately?” asked Tena at last.

“Go ahead.”

Orochimaru plainly didn’t like that, since it indicated that Kakashi had already decided to kill him.

“It’s very much like a soulmark,” she said, her eyes keen and shining. “You were right that I would be interested. The combination of infection, sage chakra, what I may call the parasite’s chakra, and the original host’s chakra… quite ingenious, although I can see how it must kill many hosts. I wish I could have an unactivated mark to compare to, but yes, basically the sealmark grows around the site of infection just as the soulmark grows when the infection is complete. It’s fascinating.”

“Can it be undone?”

Tena laughed. “I’m sorry, Hokage-sama, it’s just that I’ve spent my entire adulthood trying to figure that out with soulmarks. It’s in the chakra network, the nerves, the brain, the blood, the muscles, the organs… it travels freely among the systems of the body. How can you possibly attack every area of the body at once to extract it without damaging or destroying the body?”

“He has come out of hosts before,” Kakashi said, “though apparently with some element of his own will.”

Tena nodded thoughtfully. “Rather than extraction, there is an approach I have developed theoretically, based on some traditional fuinjutsu, but I’ve never tried it… obviously, for most people, a soulmark isn’t a burden that’s worth risking death… but this, on the other hand…”

“You got an Uzumaki,” Orochimaru said suddenly and harshly, “an Uzumaki who knows the old counter-seals?! How? Where? I spent so much time and effort, and only found—”

“Gag and restrain him,” said Kakashi, and as his ANBU did so, he told Tena, “Wait for my wife to get here. She’s the best medic in the world. If anyone can save the patient after the treatment, it’s her.”

They didn’t have to wait long. Sakura had her hair tied up in her usual “I’m working” ponytail and a different uniform on than the one she’d left the house in that morning, so she must have been busy. “Naruto said you asked for me?”

“Tena is going to attempt to destroy Orochimaru while preserving the host,” Kakashi explained. “We want you here in case the survivor needs medical treatment. Where is Naruto?”

She rolled her eyes. “Using the toilet, I think. He claimed he could eat instant ramen while running. I think he upset his stomach.” To Tena she said, “I’m Hatake Sakura. Pleased to meet you.”

“Uzumaki Tena. Pleased to meet you.”

“Is there anything I need to know before you begin?”

“Well, ordinarily sage chakra overpowers human chakra and suppresses it, so it’s quite difficult to counteract. But I do not believe it should be impossible.” Tena launched into a complicated, technical jargon laden explanation of the procedure which Kakashi was able to follow along in broad strokes. Essentially, the proposed treatment was a cycling of chakra releases through the system. Sakura made a comparison to a cancer treatment, and the two women agreed that it was a bit like a reverse cancer treatment: rather than kill cells or stop cell growth, the trick was to force enough cells to regenerate and then flush Orochimaru’s essence out before it could reinfect the other cells. A sort of false fever to speed cell regeneration, with fire release strengthened by wind release; lightning release to block and disrupt chakra movement; water release to flush out the tainted cells; earth release to stabilize the system before the cycle was started again.

“I think we’ll need a whole team for this,” mused Sakura, “and we should do it in the hospital. Tsunade-sama can provide the fire release, and Naruto wind release—plus he’s got enough to power through anything. I should be stabilizing with earth release, which will work well while I monitor the patient.”

“I am water natured, Sakura-sama,” Tena offered.

“And I’ll provide the lightning,” said Kakashi. “Sai, ask Godaime-sama if she can join us. Explain if she asks.”

“Tell her it’s a chance for her to literally burn Orochimaru to a crisp. She’ll come,” promised Sakura.

“And get Naruto too. Assuming he’s done.”

———

“No way!” shouted Naruto without any preliminary greeting after he burst through the hospital window. “I’m not doing it dattebayo!”

“What’s wrong with you, brat?” barked Tsunade. “I would have thought you’d be glad to help release someone from Orochimaru.”

“I’m not blowing Orochimaru!” Naruto crossed his arms. “Gaara was different, baa-chan! I have standards -ttebayo! You’ll have to find somebody else, because I’m _not_ doing it.”

Kakashi sighed heavily, glad that Orochimaru was sedated and not listening to this.

“What a stupid thing to say. Is he being serious?” Tena said to Sakura, who bit her lip in response.

“And isn’t this body like twelve?! That’s just gross and I’m definitely—wait just a fucking moment!” Naruto whirled towards Tena. “What did you say?!”

Tena blushed. “Oh… sorry. I don’t have much of a filter—”

“No, no, I need to know _exactly what you said._ ”

Sakura released her lip to say, “She said, ‘what a stupid thing to say,’ Naruto.”

“Do you…” Naruto wavered, his chakra roiling with the inner battle of not wanting to get his hope up yet again, but being unable to resist another try. “Do you… have a soulmark?”

Tena’s eyes widened. She said nothing, but she slowly rolled up her sleeve.

In bright, bold, messy orange: _No way!_

“Finally…” breathed Naruto, tears already forming in his eyes, “finally, finally…”

“Is that incest?” Sai was crouching at the window, his monkey ANBU mask still in place. “What degree of relation is required for it to be counted as incest? I read in a book—”

“Sai,” Sakura said with menace, “did you tell Naruto that he had to _blow_ Orochimaru.”

“I believe I used the term _blow him out_ , Hag, but it’s possible that Dickless misheard—”

_Pow._

Sakura shut the window and turned back to the rest of them with a smile as the small dot that was Sai flew into the far distance. “Shall we begin?”

———

“You’re ogling me.” Sakura fixed Kakashi with a flirtatious smile that sent a pleasant chill down his spine, despite the fact that he was soaking in a bath at the time.

“Well, they still haven’t released a waterproof edition of _Icha Icha_ ,” Kakashi explained. “I write in weekly, yet no luck at all.”

Sakura tutted and set the shower head down next to her while she rubbed shampoo into her hair. “I think my breasts have gotten bigger already. What do you think?”

“There’s nothing like a hands on examination.”

She laughed and leaned her head forward over the drain as she picked up the shower head again to rinse off her hair. Once all the bubbles were out, she twisted it up into a loose bun, rinsed her body briefly, and turned off the shower to join Kakashi in the tub.

Sakura settled into his lap, her wet hair cool against his cheek. He caressed her breasts, softly hefting and rolling them, sliding his palms over the nipples as she squirmed a bit with a giggle.

“Hn,” he said at last. “They seem as perfect as always, but I’ll keep the situation well monitored.” He dropped a kiss into the crook of her neck and she giggled again, twisting her head down to block him.

Sakura bit her lip and took his hands, sliding them down onto her slight bump. “Do you want to know the sex?”

It was still odd to be reminded that they were, in a way, three in the tub already. “Do you know already?”

“Most medics couldn’t tell yet, but I can.” She sighed. “It’s actually quite worrying… I perceive every little dip and rise in hormones, every slight development, and I can’t help but want to monitor it…” 

Kakashi thought this over for a minute, then said, “I think I can relate, somewhat… when I first got the Rinnegan, getting so much data about everything was overwhelming to me. I don’t have any lineage from the Otsutsuki, so I can’t control the Rinnegan perfectly. And of course since I… received it… I’ve had other things to deal with, but still. I sometimes feel that pressure… to know everything, so that I can do everything…”

She turned her head to smile at him. “I should have known you’d understand.”

“Maybe I am like you, a little,” he said. It was perhaps the most he’d ever praised himself.

She kissed the sharp line of his scar tenderly. “But do you want to know before the birth?”

“Well… it would give us longer to argue about names… Junko, obviously, is a wonderful name for a girl…”

“Well thank goodness it’s a boy then!” She shook her finger at him as he laughed. “Don’t you ever bring up the idea of naming a daughter after _Icha Icha_ again! Not even as a joke!”

“But there are _so many_ names to choose from, Sakura,” he teased.

“I can perform a vasectomy in less than ten seconds,” she warned. “And I don’t have to make it painless either.”

Kakashi gulped. “Okay, I won’t bring it up again if you won’t bring _that_ up again.”

“Deal.” Sakura sighed and stretched her arms, half twisting to lay on her side on him. “Kakashi? What do you think about hiring a nanny? Ideally someone who could hang out by the hospital so I can see him on breaks."

“Why don’t I just make a shadow clone to do it?”

Her eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea! But… what if something happened to you? The shadow clone would disappear and you might drop him!”

“That's fairly unlikely,” he said, “and that kind of disaster could also happen to a real nanny. Of course, I’d make it a very sturdy shadow clone, not one that would disappear at a single blow.”

“How much do you know about caring for babies?”

“Nothing, but I’m a quick study.” A little more seriously, he said, “I’d like to do this, Sakura.”

She gave him a brilliant smile. “Well, I have to admit, the thought of taking a break and coming out to you cuddling a baby in a sling is a very attractive one. And I _am_ taking the minimum six week medical leave. I can hardly have any credibility telling my patients to do that if I don’t do it myself.” She sighed. “It’s a bit maddening being not only _the pregnant head of the hospital_ but also _the pregnant wife of the Hokage_. There’s so much pressure to be the perfect role model.”

“It’ll be similar for our children. I saw it with Asuma, especially when his brother died… the pressure ramped up even more and that’s when he left to join the Guardian Ninja.”

She nodded. “Yeah… I remember with Konohamaru-kun and Ebisu-sensei…”

“What about your mission availability? You haven’t actually turned in your form, though I don’t think anyone would assign you to a mission without consulting me. I’d prefer if you stayed in the village… I know you’re one of the few medic nin able to go on a front line mission, but you’re needed here… and I have my own selfish reasons for wanting that as well.”

“Tsunade is training medic nin now full time… or semi-full time, when she’s more or less sober. As long as things are peaceful, I agree it makes sense for me to keep running the hospital, heaven knows it keeps me more than busy.”

“What do you think of me taking that six weeks off too? We can make Naruto acting Hokage.”

Her eyes widened. “Do you think he’s ready?”

“Tsunade and I will be around if any real political crisis happens, and Shikamaru will be acting as his advisor, don’t forget. Don’t tell anyone, but I honestly think Shikamaru could be Hokage right now, if it weren’t for the fact that it would make both him and Naruto utterly miserable.”

“That’s for sure.” She laughed. “Well, if the two of us can’t figure out how to take care of a baby in six weeks, neither of us deserve the name _genius._ ”

“But keep in mind, that baby is going to be half you, and half _me_.”

“Oh no.” She sat up in the water with an expression of panic. “When did you start to walk and talk?”

“Six months old.”

“Oh _no.”_

———

“So Iruka-sensei is gonna act as my father, but we gotta figure something out for her dattebayo,” Naruto said cheerily.

Kakashi turned a page in _Icha Icha Tactics_ and made a vague listening noise. A gust of cold air blew cherry blossom petals down onto their picnic blanket, and Kakashi moved a hand to cover his cup of sake without moving his eyes from the page. He was sitting back to back with his wife. Sakura had a stick of pink, white, and green-tinted dango in each hand and was munching contentedly.

Despite the chill, the sun was bright and everyone was in a good mood. An informal invitation to celebrate Sakura’s twentieth birthday had resulted in a large number of their friends spreading picnic blankets on top of the best cherry blossom hill in Konoha.

“Kakashi-sama, when will you start looking for Guy-sensei? Because it has been more than five minutes,” said Shino.

Kakashi frowned at the illustration. It had never occurred to him before, but for a woman to display both her butt and her breasts at such an angle did not seem physically possible. “I’m giving him a head start. For the integrity of the challenge.” He turned the page. "And please, drop the -sama part. We're all here as friends."

“It helps if you’re thinking about something you’d die to protect,” said Karin. She had been attempting to help Tena awaken the ability for chakra chains, with no success so far.

“I guess I’ve never really been in that scenario.” Tena said. “The only real fight I was ever in, I was the only person at risk, and I panicked and went straight for taijutsu.”

“We gotta get married soon so we can start on our six kids,” Naruto said. “I mean, everyone else is having kids, we gotta get going or else they’re gonna be younger than all their friends.”

Iruka said, “Six kids?!”

Naruto laughed. “Six kids! Yeah!”

“Sorry we’re late, Forehead,” said Ino, walking up with Yamato and offering a bouquet of flowers. “Happy birthday.”

Everyone exchanged greetings as Sakura accepted the flowers and laid them atop the little pile of gifts. “Sheesh, Pig, what’s with you? Even Kakashi was earlier than you.”

“I’m right here,” said Kakashi mildly.

Ino leaned on her husband as she tugged off her kitten heeled sandals. She wasn’t showing much, but apparently it was already affecting her centre of balance. “Do you want to know when we’re supposed to be having a hanami picnic? Everyone’s going to lose their appetite.”

“Have you tried ginger?” said Kurenai.

“You just deactivate the unwanted activity in the area postrema in the brain, Ino, it couldn’t be easier,” Sakura said.

“‘Couldn’t be easier,’ says Miss Medical Prodigy,” scowled Ino, plopping next to Sakura. “Believe it or not we can’t _all_ do brain surgery on ourselves while kneeling in front of a toilet. Give me some dango.”

Naruto suddenly stood up. “Hey!” he shouted, and formed the hand seals to produce a few dozen clones. “Fatal attacks _are not allowed_ in tag -ttebayo!”

The children, who had apparently destroyed their babysitting clone, shrieked with joy as they were chased down the hill by Naruto’s copies.

Karin, who had initially seemed to have stopped because of Naruto’s clones rushing past her, frowned and said, “Well, there’s the end to a pleasant morning. Hokage-sama, the Sarutobi elders are coming this way. And they’re pleased.” She sniffed. “It’s foul.”

“But Konohamaru-kun is a chuunin,” said Kurenai. She had stopped hiding her pregnancy after his success.

“Don’t panic and just remain quiet whatever they say,” Kakashi said.

“Hokage-sama,” began Kabuto, but Kakashi cut him off without looking up from his book.

“I have it under control.”

Sarutobi Iyori and his younger brother Sarutobi Isa had never been more than chuunin, but they had survived long enough to retire and that was an accomplishment in itself. They had, apparently, not kept in shape since their retirement, since both were puffing a bit as they crested the hill, and Iyori began his greeting with a noticeable effort. “Honoured Hokage-sama, good morning.”

Kakashi placed a folded paper into his book and closed it. “Good morning. Fine weather, isn’t it? The children are certainly enjoying it.”

The distant laughter supported his claim, but Iyori coughed. “Well. It is about a child that we have come to see you today.” He looked at Kurenai with a smile of triumph. “We require your support, Hokage-sama, to see that our rights are respected. I am certain, Hokage-sama, that you will support our rights.”

“I have the utmost respect for rights,” agreed Kakashi. “Proper order must be maintained.”

“Exactly, exactly! So, when I tell you that I have authorization from Konohamaru-sama, in his absence, to take whatever actions are necessary, you understand that our decision to take his heir into our custody to protect her from any corrupting influence is perfectly within our rights.”

Iruka put a hand on Kurenai’s shoulder as she cried out, “But Konohamaru-kun wouldn’t—”

She stopped when Kakashi lifted a finger, but Iyori appeared to think she was daunted by the paper he was waving about. “He would and he has, _Yakushi-san_ ,” he taunted, “or is it _Umino-san_ today?”

“Konohamaru-kun is an excellent leader for his young age,” Kakashi said. “You say you have made a clan edict in his absence to separate Mirai-chan from her mother’s custody?”

“That is precisely the case, Hokage-sama. And though I know you are indulgently fond of your old classmate, you cannot deny that our clan laws grant us this right.”

“Just to reiterate one more time,” Kakashi said, “you are, as the acting leaders of the Sarutobi clan, determined to forbid Mirai to see her mother? This is your official decree.”

Iyori hesitated at this, but Isa, speaking for the first time, clasped his shoulder and said with determination, “It is, Hokage-sama.”

“So this is your decree?” pursued Kakashi.

Iyori was still uncomfortable, but he said, “It’s unfortunate that it came to this, but as leaders, we sometimes must make hard choices for the greater good. I’m sure, Hokage-sama, you can understand.”

“Indeed. Konohamaru-kun had to make a hard choice recently. Do you remember the vote and the amendment that took place last month for young Neji to take leadership of the Hyuuga clan?” He paused, but the two Sarutobi merely looked confused but did not answer. ‘You see, for a branch member to take leadership of the clan required an overhaul of the entire Hyuuga clan charter with regard to Konoha, so the legislation was quite involved. But Konohamaru-kun read every single sentence.”

“Ah?” said Iyori uneasily. “Well… yes, I’m sure… at first we were quite frustrated, but… Konohamaru-sama finally listened to us, Hokage-sama. Although he couldn’t bear to do it himself, I think. That is why he gave us the leadership while he was on his mission.”

“Did you take a look at the legislation, perhaps?”

Again, confusion but no answer. Kakashi pulled the folded paper out of his copy of _Icha Icha_ and unfolded it. “I’ll read a passage you might find relevant. ‘Whereas, the protection of the next generation is the paramount concern of the Will of Fire, it is hereby decreed that any clan law or clan decree which, in the view of either the Hokage or a plurality of clan leaders, seeks to harm a child, it shall be declared void; if the clan persists in its attempts, a majority vote of the clan leaders, with the Hokage to break the tie, may result in the clan losing its status.’” He refolds the paper slowly, enjoying the enraged and impotent looks developing on the elders’ faces. “Part of the revocation of the Caged Bird seal. It passed unanimously, by the way. So Konohamaru-kun had to make a difficult decision. By placing the clan control in your hands, he would be giving the rope to hang yourselves, of course, but if you were obstinate about it, it would risk the Sarutobi clan losing their clan status altogether. But, as you said, as a leader, he had to make a difficult choice for the greater good.”

“Anyone for dango?” Sakura offered into the delicious silence.


	9. Chapter 9

“Eat my entire ass, Kiba,” a tall woman in a Kirigakure chuunin uniform said, then turned around and stalked out of the izakaya pub, pushing past Kakashi and Sakura, who were standing in the doorway. Kiba was left at a table, wiping some kind of alcohol out of his eyes. Evidently something had just not ended well.

“Whiskey, Hokage-sama?” called the bartender. “Sakura-sama, what can I get for you?”

Sakura still hadn’t broken her habit of blushing cutely when addressed as _Sakura-sama_ in social situations, and privately Kakashi was glad. He lightly caressed her shoulder and enjoyed seeing the rosy hue deepen in response. “U-um—just a soda water with lime, please.”

“The same,” said Kakashi for himself, “with whiskey in it. Hold the soda. And the lime.”

The bartender laughed. “Hai, hai.”

“Did I hear Sakura-sama come in?” came a voice from the back. “Is there a table for them?! What are you making her to drink? Sugary drinks are not good for the baby!!”

“Calm down, Okaasan,” the bartender called back. “She’s having soda water.”

“What?! Just soda water?!? What is Hokage-sama thinking? That’s too cold! And she needs nutrition!” A white-haired head poked through the curtain. “I’ll make you something, Sakura-sama! Sit down, sit down!” She swept her gaze accusingly over the crowded izakaya. “Isn’t someone going to give up their table for Sakura-sama?! _She’s having a baby, you know!_ ”

“You can sit here,” said Kiba, getting up.

“No, no! Look, you still have all that food left. We can share, okay?” Sakura tugged at Kakashi and they took seats at the table.

Kiba was a curious combination of hot-headed and easy going, so he settled back into his seat without any further demur. “Sorry about the… scene,” he said vaguely.

Kakashi was only too willing to wave it away, but Sakura latched onto it, whether from out of her matchmaking heart or a desire to avoid having her pregnancy brought up. “Was that Rina-san?”

“Uh… no.” Kiba picked at a plate of cold marinated pig’s ears. “Her name is Ai…”

“What happened to Rina-san?!” Sakura demanded. “I never even met her!”

Kiba’s look gave Kakashi a man-to-man plea for assistance, but his saviour turned out to be the matriarch of the place, plunking Kakashi’s whiskey neat in front of him. Sakura reached for the soda water and lime but the woman said kindly but firmly, “Now, dear, wouldn’t you much rather have some nice tea? I can make a pot, no trouble.”

Sakura’s smile became brittle. “Cold carbonated drinks are absolutely fine in pregnancy. I’ve spoken to my doctor about it.”

The older woman made a skeptical noise but surrendered the drink and disappeared back into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Kiba had been wolfing down his food with a speed that nearly approached Kakashi’s own genjutsu-aided approach to eating in public. “Well, I leave you two lovebirds to your date,” he said as he stood up and threw his coat on. “Nobody likes a third wheel.”

“Oh, but Kiba! I still want to know about Rina-san!” Sakura turned her head to call after his back. “I’ll find you!”

She turned back to Kakashi and sighed, taking a distinctly pouty sip from her drink.

“We can go home,” offered Kakashi.

“No, I wanted to have a date and we’re going to have a date,” Sakura said. She took another drink and smiled. “This morning, in surgery—”

“Sakura-sama! Hokage-sama!”

They turned, and a middle-aged woman was standing there in tears.

“You don’t know me—I was never a ninja myself, I’m just a widow of one of the Akimichi and I thought… I thought my child was lost to me forever because of that evil Shimura…” She spat the name venomously. “But you! You ended the war and you gave him back to me! Thank you! Thank you!”

She got down on her knees on the floor sticky with spilled beer and stray bits of food, making Sakura immediately leap up to stop her.

“No, no, please! Don’t cry, obasan!”

“Your generation is a blessing,” the woman sobbed. “A blessing! And I know you’ll be such a wonderful mother!”

She patted at Sakura’s small bump, and Kakashi saw his wife grit her teeth for a moment, probably as an alternative to punting the woman through the ceiling. “It’s _really_ kind of you to say.” Sakura detached the offending hands from her abdomen and shook them in a kind of pseudo-handshake. “But we are just trying to make the world a little better, and hopefully the next generation will make it better still. So enjoy it, please?”

“You’re Takayoshi’s mother, obasan?” Kakashi inquired, and when she nodded, added, “How is he?”

“Well—he’s… he’s not the little boy I remembered, of course… so many… so many years…” The woman forced a smile. “He still does love my cooking, Hokage-sama!”

Kakashi smiled at her. “Good. Keep him in shape for me, will you?”

“Of course! I’ll do what I can for the village! Oh! And here comes your own dinner. Please enjoy it!”

“Our own…?” began Sakura and then rolled her eyes.

The matriarch was approaching, with two steaming bowls of rice topped with a fragrant mixture of tiny _chiriminjako_ fish and _sansho_ pepper. She plunked them down with an air of triumph. “No charge!” she announced.

“Thank you,” said Kakashi, and Sakura sighed but managed a polite thank you as well.

“I know they mean well.” Sakura cracked apart the chopsticks. “But I’m beginning to feel like a fish in a bowl. Or a prizewinning dog, maybe. One that does tricks.”

“What better thing could you be compared to?”

She stuck her tongue out at him and then said her _itadakimasu_ and dug in.

———

“Fancy meeting you here, Karin,” sang out Suigetsu. “What a hilarious turn of events, eh?”

Karin was meeting his sharp-toothed grin with open disgust. “I thought the Chuunin Exams were going to be attended by _actual leaders_.”

“Ah, well, you see, in anticipation of a happy event, she’s sticking close to home.” Suigetsu’s tongue ran over his sharklike teeth in a grotesque parody of a smile.

“What kind of happy event results in more of _you_ in this world.”

Kakashi smirked beneath his mask. He probably should remind Karin that they were both here officially, but it was too amusing. Anyway, he never did like to interfere, and he had to do way too much of it as it was.

“Aw, jealous? Still dreaming about Sasuke?”

“You asshole! I never—don’t be ridiculous—Sasuke wasn’t—it was just the—asshole! I’m married and pregnant _too,_ motherfucker! So there!”

“Even you? Whatcha do, Hokage? Poke holes in all the condoms?”

“Konoha citizens,” Kakashi said carefully, as Karin’s volatile Uzumaki chakra distracted him, “are committed to the continuance of the Will of Fire. By the way, Suigetsu-san, this is Uzumaki Tena, Naruto’s wife.”

Suigetsu whistled as Tena politely and formally bowed. “I heard something about that! Congratulations—or, shit, you’re not supposed to congratulate the woman? Aw, shit, I said shit.”

“You should tell your wife that she’s wasting the Mist’s money on your protocol lessons,” Karin said dryly.

The insult slid off Suigetsu. “Where is Naruto? Don’t tell me he’s here and I didn’t notice. I like to credit my sensing skill a little more than that.”

“In preparation for his eventual rule, he is acting as Hokage in my absence.”

“Ha!” Suigetsu looked like he had another quip in store, but the approach of Ay shut him up. It was unwise for anyone to poke at the Raikage, and Ay was bound to be particularly testy with any former associate of Sasuke’s.

“Welcome to Kumo, Hokage,” he boomed, then looked at Suigetsu. “I suppose _you_ represent the Mizukage. Hn. Welcome too. How many entrants this year?”

“Twelve for us, Raikage,” said Kakashi.

“Yeah, we only got six.” Suigetsu snorted. “Turns out when you kill half the graduating class every year it affects the birth rate after a while. Fuck, but those Uchihas left us a mess.”

Ay had started out with a glower towards Suigetsu, but the mention of the name Uchiha turned his ire towards the Konoha contingent, although Ay didn’t actually say anything.

“Anyway, who else is coming?” Suigetsu continued.

Suigetsu was looking at Karin, and she responded, perhaps both of them falling back into habit. “Wind delegation will be here any moment from that way—the trio, of course. The Tsuchikage is with the Amekage; no surprise there.”

Suigetsu looked puzzled, which delighted Karin.

“Oh, so you don’t know as much as you think, huh? Anyway, I don’t know enough of the smaller villages to be able to pick out which is who, but there’s certainly plenty around.”

Ay grunted as the Wind delegation entered, the Sand Sibling trio catching every eye between Temari’s deadly grace, Kankurou’s loud facepaint and dramatic clothes, and Gaara’s understated power. “Don’t know why we can’t just have a Five Kage summit like before. Too many damn noisy voices.”

 “Because we have not made decisions in their interest in the past,” said Gaara, calmly asserting his right to be in the conversation as always. “Decisions are never made to benefit those who have no voice.”

“Well, there’s no reason that Yugakure should have as much voice as Kumogakure. How many ninjas do they even have left? Two?”

“Kazekage,” interrupted Kakashi, “have you met Uzumaki Tena?”

Partially he redirected the conversation to avoid yet another political debate, but the new topic could also be characterized among “conversations Hatake Kakashi would very much rather have conducted by other people while he reads _Icha Icha_ in a different building.” Introducing Gaara to his unrequited soulmate’s new wife was bound to be awkward at best, but it was also unavoidable. Kakashi wanted it over with quickly.

Gaara did better than Kakashi expected, perhaps because he also knew that this was unavoidable. “I have not had the pleasure,” he said quietly, extending his hand. “I was… unable to attend your wedding, Uzumaki-san. Your husband is the best man I have ever known, and I know you make him very—” there was a nearly imperceptible pause, but because of how Gaara’s chakra was acting it sounded to Kakashi like a siren—“happy.”

“Kazekage-sama.” Tena bowed as she shook his hand. “Indeed, I am very fortunate.”

“No, you must be, I am sure… just as wonderful of a person, to be able to make Naruto shine even brighter.” Gaara smiled, and Kakashi had a feeling it was sincere, which somehow made it all the sadder.

“Tena-san will be addressing the assembly about our treatment of Orochimaru’s hosts, and its potential for other problems,” Kakashi said, attempting to get the conversation track back along professional lines. “Konoha would like to offer apprenticeships in fuinjutsu to genin from other villages.”

“You’re sure it works?” said Ay, but the Raikage’s keen eyes had lit up at the notion of obtaining fuinjutsu for his village.

“We’ve managed to treat three victims so far—though all three had fairly low level curse marks. But at the same time, that seems to be the majority of those still alive.”

“You can examine the body of that hulking one he got the idea from, if you like,” Ay offered, pleased with his own generosity. “Ordinarily we cremate criminals, but I told ‘em to hold onto this one.”

Karin fidgeted with her glasses as Tena smiled and bowed. “I appreciate the offer, but I have no autopsy skills.”

“As you like. Well, here comes the rabble.” The Raikage looked distastefully as the leaders of more minor villages filed in. “Let’s get this thing over with so we can get to the fighting!”

———

“Soooo… _my_ team had two become chuunin, and _your_ team only had one do so, sweetheart… so… under the terms of our deal…” Anko coyly traced Chouji’s patterned cheeks.

“Oh my God,” groaned Genma. “Can’t you keep it together until we get home?”

“Don’t worry, Genma-chan. We don’t have the equipment to do it here anyway,” chirped Anko, planting a kiss on her boyfriend’s forehead and then skipping back to her team.

“Where’s Tena?” Kakashi asked Karin. “I said departure at 8am.”

Karin closed her eyes for a minute, then popped them open in surprise. “She’s with the Kazekage and his sister, Hokage-sama—oh, she’s leaving.”

“Leaving, how?”

“Calm, I think—oh, now she’s moving faster. Noticed the time, I think? She’s headed back for her room. Should we send a message that her bags have already been packed for her?”

They reconvened and there was no time to talk as they rushed to the station to catch the morning train from Kumogakure to the capital of the land of Lightning, where they would switch to a boat to take them to the eastern coast of the Land of Fire—specifically to Uzushio, which was being slowly rebuilt as a fishing village, with thanks to the train station there that was connected to the Land of Fire’s own burgeoning railway line, making sales of fresh seafood cheaper and easier.

The journey as a whole was probably no faster than a ninja’s speed on foot, and maybe slower than one at full run, but this journey could be taken with ease even by civilians. But it all depended on expensive, vulnerable infrastructure. Kakashi brooded as he sat in his seat about how many dozens, maybe even hundreds, of bridges and tunnels and docks he had destroyed or fought to defend in his career. No one would have been foolish enough to invest in a train like this ten years ago. Now, every nation was eagerly building them.

“Did you get any _omiyage_ souvenirs for Sakura-sama, Hokage-sama?” Tena said politely, turning her pen in her hands.

Kakashi smirked behind his mask. Tena was, apparently, a kindred spirit to his—she’d clearly chosen this empty berth in the train carriage in hopes of being able to write in peace. Good. After they had the necessary conversation, that meant he’d be able to whip out the _Icha Icha_ fanzine he had picked up in Kumo and enjoy it.

But first, that necessary conversation. “Ah, yes… I got her some peanut candy. Did you get something for Naruto?”

“Yes… an instant noodle assortment. I hope it made it into the baggage…”

Kakashi chuckled. “If it didn’t, you can just pick up a few boxes of ramen at the convenience store in Konoha and he’ll be just as happy.”

She smiled. “Yes… he’s very easy that way.”

“Did the Kazekage have a message for him?”

“Ah… not exactly. He wanted to speak to me about fuinjutsu, actually… he was perceptive enough to read between the lines of my speech, that the research that allowed me to counteract the cursed seals was actually done in pursuit of understanding soulmarks. He wondered if such a process could be modified to remove a soulmark.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I was evasive. But I told him the truth about what soulmarks are, and I think that has eased his mind somewhat about wanting his removed.”

“The truth?”

“Sure, like I told you before. Or didn’t I? Oh, I guess we really only spoke of it in terms of its mechanism of action… the space-time fuinjutsu that the Nidaime developed, I’m not even sure if he himself fully understood it when he was experimenting with it. It was invaluable for me to be able to read his notes, and they went against many of my expectations of what his purpose was. You know, the reigning theory in Iwa was that soulmarks are some kind of weapon.”

“A weapon? How?”

Tena laughed. “Well, exactly, but the Senju brothers were that feared, you know. But anyway, I had taken it for granted that he had _some_ military application in mind that went wrong, and I was right, but totally not in the way I expected. It was for morale, and he wanted his ninja to be able to find people who would keep them sane.”

“That is what Tsunade-sama told us,” Kakashi said. “That he was lonely after his brother’s death and he saw how those who were alone suffered more.”

“But he was doomed to failure on that point,” Tena chuckled. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. You didn’t read his notes, huh? He was intensely depressed when he realized that his mark was indicating that his ‘soulmate’, as he thought, was his brother. Because he never realized what the soulmarks, what the space-time jutsu, was retrieving and recording. It’s simply your most important person.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s a kind of time travel—that’s why I…” She faltered. “Anyway, it’s a kind of time travel, and your chakra travels all along your own timeline and determines the most vital person in your life and pulls out those first words, and that’s what becomes the mark. It’s a one-way jutsu—if you have the mark, that’s the person who is most important to you, it’s not the mark that makes them important—does that make sense?”

“No.” Kakashi was reeling. “I don’t understand. How can that be true? I would never have looked twice at Sakura, and she would _never_ have looked at me, if we didn’t have the marks.”

Tena blinked. “What, really? You and Sakura-sama? I assumed you’d grown up together…”

“I’m fourteen years older than her!”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious? Are you punking me right now?”

“Maa…” Kakashi looked at the window at the dramatic peaks and dips of the landscape and felt as if his stomach was changing altitude in the same way. He pushed himself back onto the task at hand. “The age isn’t relevant. We both took actions—whether to not be together or to be together—because of the marks. My mark changed me, before I even met her, and her mark changed her…”

“Oh, I see! Well, yes, that’s what makes it so fascinating! Observing changes what you observe, even without time travel, but time travel makes it more complicated. I believe that’s part of the reason for the sixteen years that it takes the mark to show up. So, yes, if the mark itself makes someone more important to you, that’s part of the feedback loop… I mean, I shouldn’t speak as if I’m saying this with complete confidence, because this is merely my current best theory. But what I think is happening, what I have seen happen confirmed in every case I have studied, no exceptions, is that you _will_ meet the person who matches the mark, you _will_ hear the words as written, and that person _will_ be an exceptionally important person in your life—someone who… who is the sun in your solar system.”

“What about Naruto?”

“Naruto has… a particularly complex orbit.” She smiled fondly.

“And that is what you explained to the Kazekage?”

It was her turn to look out the window. “I hope that I was able to help him. He was in… a great deal of pain, I think, thinking that he was somehow not what he should be, or was destined for pain or something like that… that he was unworthy of Naruto. But I explained that it isn’t anything like that. They dated and Kazekage-sama just didn’t click for Naruto, not in that crazy world-bending way, and if there were no soulmarks then they would just break up and that would be that. But Naruto changed Kazekage-sama, changed him utterly. The… one-sided romantic attraction complicated that… but fundamentally, nothing is ever going to make Naruto less important to Gaara-sama. Naruto will always be his most important person. But he can still be happy, and make someone else happy, if he wishes… or be happy on his own. The unmatched soulmark is uncommon, I said, I think because most of us find it too difficult to begin or maintain devotion in that way without devotion in return. Souls like Gaara-sama’s are rare.”

A long, not entirely comfortable silence passed. Kakashi’s brow was furrowed and he stared at the patterns in the wood of the table between them.

“I am sorry if this information has made you uneasy.” Tena broke the silence hesitantly. “I don’t know you very well, Hokage-sama… I have… lived my life not knowing people well, apart from my father. Until Naruto. But. I have observed people, and I have made soulbonds my life’s work… and the interaction between you and Sakura-sama is so beautiful, so compatible… I never would have guessed the soulmarks were so pivotal in your relationship. I would have said, ‘now, here is a couple that doesn’t need the marks…’”

“I asked you to explain,” Kakashi said, absolving her of any guilt in the matter. She was shrewd, serious, and good-hearted, this woman. A good match for Naruto…

“You make me wonder if perhaps the Second Hokage actually did do a good thing,” she said.

“But interfering with time like this… and the way it went out of control…” Kakashi’s mind wrenched itself back off the topic of his individual relationship with Sakura and to a possible threat to Konoha and the world.

Tena nodded. “Certainly, your Second Hokage was not the most prudent individual, I would say, with all respect for his genius. We all know what became of his Edo Tensei, for example… and I originally was interested in the space-time fuinjutsu in hopes that I could… interfere, as you probably already surmised. Undo the past, and save my people.”

“That doesn’t interest you anymore?”

“Honestly, it still does _interest_ me… but I know the possibility of disaster is far too great. The soulmark fuinjutsu could have been much worse… at least it doesn’t appear to have destabilized the universe, or something like that…”

“Destabilize the universe? Is that possible?”

“Supposing there was a feedback effect where one soulmark caused a change, which resulted in another soulmark, which caused a change that prevented the other soulmark…” She gestured in a vaguely ominous manner.

It sounded altogether too possible. “But that isn’t happening?”

“Not that I can tell, at least.”

 _We can only act as if our choices matter,_ Sakura’s voice echoed in his mind, and it comforted him. But not enough.

“I think I’ll do some reading,” he said, pulling out _Icha Icha Lightning: Unauthorized Fanbook_ and flipping past the table of contents to a beautiful fanart of Junko rising out of the steaming water of a hot spring. It was paired with some salacious _senryuu_ poetry, and he turned his giggle at the clever double entendre in the first one into a clearing of his throat.

He heard Tena open her notebook. The click-clack of the train over the rails and the scritch-scratch of Tena’s pen soothed his spirit to the point that he utterly lost himself in a delightful AU story where, instead of ninjas, everyone worked in a coffee shop.

 _How original. Genius,_ he mused. _I will have to send this author a hawk._

The next day, in a civilian village on the coast of Lightning, a shinobi messenger hawk caused quite a stir when it dropped a scroll off at the kitchens of a restaurant, where one of the waitstaff opened it with trembling hands.

“‘Update soon please’?” he read aloud. “Is that it?!”

———

“Are you sure that this is alright with you, Sakura?”

Sakura hummed. “It’ll grow back. This is more important than us.”

Kakashi sighed. She was holding out his most formal Hokage robes, and he was silent as she helped him dressed. Sakura had chosen the simple square-collared black mourning dress of Konoha.

“Drink water now, and after,” she murmured, resting her head against his back for a moment. “It’s going to be very hot.”

“Aa.”

The door slid open, and she left it open behind her.

He walked to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, and then another when the first was drunk. He looked at the clock, and left the second glass half-full by the sink.

Kakashi walked through the streets of Konoha, subdued and silent. Everyone was already on their way.

The crowds thickened as he approached the old police headquarters, but parted for him silently. No cheery greetings today.

In front of the doors, the scent of incense was already permeating the muggy August air. A film crew hovered uncertainly at the edges, and he went up to them first.

“Hokage-sama,” the leader addressed him with a nod, “here is your microphone.”

They clipped it into his robes and focused the camera on them as he approached the head priest and knelt before him.

“What do you seek?” the priest asked him.

“Purification.”

“For whom do you seek it?”

“For Konoha.”

“What do you say to the spirits of the dead?”

“Be at peace…” Kakashi bent his head forward, and his hair fell in his face. “Be at peace, we are sorry.”

Water poured over his head, bracing and cold. Hands took his shoulders, and he kept his eyes closed as the razor began to shave his head.

When he finally stood up, he felt unbelievably bared. Kakashi flexed his fingers briefly to deal with the twitching need to touch his mask to make sure it was still in place.

Genma and Raidou threw open the double doors to the police station, and Kakashi led in the priests.

“The massacre began here,” Kakashi said, hoping the microphone was doing its job. “Itachi had set time-delay silencing traps on all the exits. Obito, under the name Madara, came in through the front doors, here. He fought and killed every member of the Uchiha Military Police. Here are their names: Uchiha Chiyome, age 34, chuunin; Uchiha Kagetaka, age 25, tokubetsu jounin…”

As he recited the names, the priests murmured and chanted, seeking to pacify and release any spirits that might linger in the place of their death.

Then the procession went to the Uchiha clan district. The heat of the sun pounded on Kakashi’s newly bald head, and sweat trickled beneath his robes.

Again, Genma and Raidou unchained the gate and opened it.

“Here, Uchiha Itachi killed all the rest of the clan. He did so upon the orders of Shimura Danzo. The third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, failed to stop this. Itachi began the slaughter in this house.”

They followed the recreated trail.

“Uchiha Izumi, age 13, genin, was here. Itachi placed her under a genjutsu and then killed her. Her mother Uchiha Hotaru, age 32, no rank, heard the noise and came down the stairs. Itachi threw a kunai which slit her throat, and she bled to death on the stairs.”

They left the house and moved to the next.

“Uchiha Aya, age 8, was home sick from school and lying here listening to the radio. Itachi decapitated her and fought very briefly with her brother, Moritoki, age 15, chuunin. He was decapitated as well. Then he went into the kitchen and killed their mother Yatsuko, age 40, no rank. She was hiding under the table and he stabbed her through the back.”

They moved from house to house, sometimes pausing for those who were killed in the streets. The fluttering papers of the _nusa_ waved by the high priest rattled in time with the chants. Blessed salt fell, absolving water flowed. Kakashi’s mouth was dry as he forced himself to keep talking.

They ended in the main house.

“Itachi here killed his mother, Mikoto, age 35, jounin, and his father, Fugaku, 40. They did not resist him.” He took a deep breath. “Meanwhile, his younger brother Sasuke, age 7, ran through the bloody streets in a panic, and came to this room just as his parents died, whereupon Itachi placed him into a powerful genjutsu, successfully planting in him a desire to avenge and restore his clan by any means necessary.”

Kakashi knelt in the faded bloodstain and sprinkled salt upon it.

“All of this, _all of this_ , was the result of the desire to do good _by any means necessary_. But we must all recognize, we must all see, that it is impossible to do good by doing evil. Evil only ever brings about more evil; it is only when we respond to evil with good that we can grasp peace. Let us beg the forgiveness of the dead, who died to teach us this lesson.”

After everything was purified, the gate was pulled down and cleared away, and memorial stones placed up in their stead. The largest stones listed the civilian Uchiha, while others listed the shinobi and police members, and finally two smaller stones to the side memorialized Shisui and Sasuke. The priests had nixed the idea of including Obito and Itachi—it was not good, they said. Apparently asking the dead to forgive their direct murderer was too much, even as they were being asked to forgive the village collectively.

Kakashi laid down offerings officially as leader, and then people were allowed to offer their own tributes to the dead.

Naruto, who had been crying the entire time, laid a basket of tomatoes at Sasuke’s stone, with his scratched forehead protector tied to the handle, and held a fierce whispered conversation with the etching of his name.

Iruka stepped past Kakashi to lay lilies. “Aya-chan, Izumi-chan, Sasuke-kun, Shuuji-kun, Kako-chan, Kiyoshi-kun, you were very good students.”

When it was all over, Kakashi lay boneless on his side in his bed, while his wife tenderly wiped his brow with a cold washcloth and soothed away the burgeoning sunburn with her chakra.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve just gotten through two days of food poisoning,” he said.

She made a worried noise. “I can tell them not to come.”

“No, I’m alright, I’m just… emptied. But that’s the idea, I think.” He reached out to touch the bump of her stomach. “Now we bring in the good things.”

“Speaking of,” she said, “will that land really sell?”

“It already has, and at not much of a discount,” he answered. “Konoha may need to change its name to the City Hidden in the Leaves soon.”

“We’re here -ttebayo!” roared a voice from the front door.

“Shannaro!” Sakura strode away, and Kakashi could hear her scolding Naruto. “It’s not a party, Naruto!”

“Well, why not?”

“We’re remembering the dead!”

“We already knew they were dead, we just told them to go away dattebayo. Ow!”

———

Kakashi looked at the loving detail in every corner of the crib. Tiny piglets rolled and played, ate and slept among riotous bushclover and tall sheltering trees.

“Have you ever seen something so beautiful in your entire life, sempai?” Yamato said.

Kakashi smiled at Yamato, knowing that he wasn’t bragging about the crib, but rather the sleeping occupant of it, tiny little Yamanaka Inori.

“Ino-chan is trying to make the rest of us look bad,” said Sakura. “One week old and ribbons in her hair already.”

“Auntie Sakura is twenty years older than you, Inori-chan, and she still doesn’t know how to accessorize,” Ino cooed at the sleeping baby. “What a tragedy.”

“How does the rocking work?” asked Kakashi.

“Ah, it’s just a little bit of ordinary earth release chakra,” explained Yamato. “I put the same feature in yours, don’t worry. It’s also a baby monitor—if breathing stops, it sounds an alarm.”

“That’s a really brilliant feature, Yamato. And ours does the same thing?” Theirs—decorated differently, with puppies and slugs, storm clouds and flowers—was currently sitting in their living room filled with gifts in anticipation of next month’s arrival.

“Yes, I tested it by forming a wood clone, using henge to change into a baby, and holding my breath,” Yamato said very seriously.

“Oh? Oh… really?” Sakura faltered, squeezing her upper arms that were crossed over her baby bump. A snorting sound came from Ino, and the two women met eyes and promptly mutually lost it, dissolving into loud laughter.

Inori woke up and began to cry.

“Oh God,” Sakura said, “Please tell me you got a picture.”

Ino wiped a tear from her eye as she held onto the dresser. “N-no, he d-didn’t do it when I was home… wooooo…”

“I care about _safety_ ,” Yamato said darkly, picking up the baby, but it only send the women into further paroxysms.

“Do you think… do you think a baby wood clone is a _bud_ or a _sprout_?” snickered Sakura.

Ino mimicked a fat baby face holding its breath with her hands forming Yamato’s characteristic facial guard, and the women nearly howled with each other as Yamato huffed off, Kakashi trailing after him with his smile seemingly inoffensive in comparison.

“Why did we marry such immature people, Kakashi-sempai?”

“I suggested it for tax purposes, myself.”

Yamato chuckled. “Well, I suppose I deserve that joke.”

Kakashi didn’t bother correcting him.

Inori had been soothed back to slumber by her father’s efficient rocking and walking motions, and Yamato stared adoringly down at her little brown curls.

“But you didn’t say what you thought, sempai.”

“Uh, well, she certainly is a baby.”

Yamato narrowed his eyes at him in that familiar expression he had whenever he suspected his sempai was pulling his chain. Usually that expression slid immediately back into one of total adoration and trust, which was part of why Kakashi enjoyed yanking on that chain, but this time, it formed instead an entirely new and never before seen on Yamato expression.

Yamato was looking, in fact, supercilious. Condescending, even. To _him._

“Ah, well, sempai,” he said magnanimously, as the expert in the presence of the amateur, “when you’re a father you’ll understand.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments appreciated :)


	10. Chapter 10

“Haaa!” crowed Guy, smacking the pull-up bar and pulling himself up into a triumphant victory pose atop it. “One thousand! I win, rival!”

Kakashi huffed as he did inverted sit-ups 992 through 1000 without bothering to reply, then simply hung by his knees for a moment. His core was burning.

“I believe this makes our record 114 to 109 in my favour!” Guy continued, staring down at him from atop the bar. His upside down face made his bushy brows look like an impressive moustache beneath his eyes as they furrowed in distress. “I am pulling away from you, my rival… This is not good. Not good at all!”

He leapt to the ground, and Kakashi quickly dropped to his hands and handsprung vertically as well. “Eh? What’s not good about it?”

“You… are losing your youth…!” Guy began to cry.

“Aa, aa,” said Kakashi awkwardly as Guy clasped him in a manly hug. “Not at all…”

“Oho! I know the answer!” Guy thrust Kakashi with a firm grip of his shoulders. “I must challenge you more often! As your eternal rival, as your friend, as a loyal ninja of Konoha, I cannot allow the Hokage to deteriorate. Let’s have another challenge right now! First to the hospital! One! Two! Three! Staaaaart!”

Kakashi’s legs were like rubber bands when he smacked his hand on the hospital door barely a half second before Guy. As Guy hit his hand to it, the wood splintered.

“Shannaro!” came a roar from upstairs. A window banged open and a pink head came out. “I told you two to leave the hospital out of your challenges!”

“Eh, sorry, sorry,” puffed Kakashi.

“I apologize, Sakura!” Guy roared, seemingly not out of breath at all. “Our youthful hot-blood overcame our reason! But it was a stupendous race!”

“Well, it better be a stupendous replacement door! I don’t care who pays for it, I just want it fixed!” she retorted. “By tomorrow! Now come in, Guy, Tsunade-shishou is in today, and she wants to check on your legs. She’s developing a replacement foot for someone and she wants to study the amputation points on your hips again.”

“Yosh!” Guy dealt a kick to the door which completely pulverized it. “Study this! Yahaaaa!”

“Kakashi!” Sakura screamed, “Can’t you do something about him!?”

“Not once in thirty years,” Kakashi replied with a sigh.

———

Kakashi kept breathing as slow as he could to combat the exhilarating effects of Naruto's transfer of sage chakra.

From a hopefully safe distance, Naruto, the Kazekage, Tsuchikage, and Amekage were watching, but Kakashi could only see Gaara's sand floating in a massive cloud. The cloud dissipated, signalling all clear.

Kakashi turned back towards the mountain.

"Bansho Ten'in." He put about half of his enhanced chakra into it.

The ground shook like an earthquake as the mountain directly in front of him began to unmake itself. Stone and tree and moss and shrieking animal and bird; all inexorably flew up into a massive sphere.

"Ready, Katsuyu-sama?"

The slug summon encased most of his body. "Ready."

"Shinra Tensei."

The sphere exploded downwards. Even with his ears and eyes shielded by the slug, it was still overwhelming to his senses. The edges of his vision blackened from the massive chakra expenditure and he sank to his knees.

About a minute or so later, a rush of paper wings informed him that Konan was there. She lifted him tenderly into his arms, and he groaned a bit as he breathed in her delicate scent.

"Absolutely magnificent, Hokage-sama. Rest, now."

_Rest... what a good idea..._

When he blinked open his eyes again, he was in a bed in a darkened room. Flashes of lightning through the curtains revealed it was like a hospital room, and the sound of pouring rain was constant.

"Only a day?" Konan's deep melodic voice sounded pleased. "Your wife told us to expect you unconscious for up to a week."

"Naruto's chakra, maybe," Kakashi said, and would have tried to sit up, but Konan pressed a button which made the bed itself fold up to a reclining sitting position, which he found about disconcerting.

"I'll order a meal for you," Konan said. "By the way, this is the 74th floor, so please don't try to escape via the window."

"My wife told you a lot, maa..."

Konan laughed in agreement as she left. 

Gaara entered before the food arrived. "Hokage."

"Kazekage."

"A complete success," he said solemnly. "The Iwa-nin are stabilizing it now. The passage should be ready for merchant traffic in under a week. It'll need to be monitored for landslides, of course, but even so."

"Excellent."

"You're sure you won't change your mind about the payment? I prefer to pay for what I receive."

"The payment," Kakashi said as he cautiously wiggled his toes, "is spreading the story of my immense, unchallengeable power far and wide."

Gaara smirked. "Aa. Don't worry about that. My ninja haven't been able to talk of anything else. They're all terrified of you. Is it true that this jutsu destroyed Konoha?"

"Yes, but between us, the wielder that time was an Uzumaki," Kakashi replied. "Even with Naruto's borrowed chakra, I’m not capable of his level.”

“Perhaps when you’re dead, one of the Uzumaki clan will receive the eye?”

Gaara’s tone was calm, not accusative. Kakashi responded with equal calmness. “That remains to be seen.”

There was no official plan of succession for the Rinnegan. Privately, Sakura and he had agreed that Naruto should have it, or if he was not available, it should be destroyed. Besides Naruto, there was no one that they could agree had both the moral and battle power sufficient to entrust with such an awesome power.

Naruto and Tena’s children would of course have a strong likelihood of inheriting the bloodline traits that enabled Nagato to wield the Rinnegan, but Karin’s children by Shino would have as much Uzumaki heritage as Naruto himself. And the notion of destroying the Rinnegan regardless of potential bearers also had its merits.

Gaara walked to the window and looked out at the rain. ”You turned a mountain into a level road. If an Uzumaki could do more…”

“…then an Uzumaki with the Rinnegan could lead a terrorist organization that nearly destroyed the world, yes. It’s a problem.”

“It makes me think of the tailed beasts and your Hashirama,” Gaara said. “How he distributed them between the villages to keep the power balanced. But it didn’t exactly work out as he intended. Maybe nothing can… will they believe it, do you think?”

Kakashi blinked. “Will who believe what?”

Konan walked silently into the room pushing a overbed-table with a tray as Gaara continued, still facing the rain, “The next generation. If we give them peace, will they believe us when we tell them how horrible war was?”

The tray was maneuvered in front of Kakashi, and he was distracted from philosophical issues by the absolutely mouthwatering aroma of sweet jasmine rice paired with a large bowl of pungent green onion miso soup, not to mention the grilled fish and vegetables.

“Please eat,” said Konan, and Kakashi didn’t even bother to say _itadakimasu_ before grabbing his spoon. “Kazekage, it is not merely the absence of war that makes peace. We cannot entirely control or predict what the next generation does with our gifts. We can only make sure we tell them with what blood those gifts were purchased.”

“Aa.” Gaara’s smile was a twisted thing. “And who shed the blood.”

———

When the squalling thing was placed on Sakura’s chest, Kakashi still felt he didn’t understand at all.

Sakura seemed to get it right away. She’d seemed to get everything right away, really. That perfect chakra control, apparently, which enabled her to turn off nerve signals precisely and at will, rendered her so calm and collected throughout the whole process that she’d actually treated the thing as a sort of childbirth class for medic nin students.

She’d said she wanted him there, and it wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there, but pressed against a wall as Sakura lectured the crowd about dilation and fundal height, he felt more out of place and lost than he’d ever done in his brief year as an academy student so long ago.

“Alright, now, everyone out, give the new parents some room to bond,” Tsunade said briskly, shooing everyone away and leaving a clear view to where Sakura was staring at their baby, her mouth forming a silent O.

Kakashi felt a ceramic cup being pressed into his hand and raised it up. Sake. Of course.

“You look like you need it,” Tsunade said with a wink. “I’ll be back soon, when she’s ready to pass the afterbirth. They’re both doing just fine.”

The sound of the door closing made Sakura look up towards him, and she blushed a little.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I guess I went into teaching mode.”

“It’s fine,” he said. He downed the shot of sake, set down the cup on a table of medical instruments, and walked forward to meet his son.

The baby had wide, wide eyes, slate grey and staring up at his mother’s face. Dusky pink hair lay flat and slick against his skull.

“Hello,” said Kakashi.

The baby blinked.

“I can’t believe we made a human being,” Sakura said.

_People do it every day,_ Kakashi thought of saying, but didn’t. It would be true on a shallow level, but it would also be the furthest thing from true.

The baby began to wiggle, struggling to crawl and lift his outsized head over towards Sakura’s breast.

“Should he be doing that?” Kakashi said with a hint of panic. Walking at six months was one thing, but he did not know if he was ready for a baby born crawling.

Sakura chuckled. “It’s not real crawling, it’s just the breast crawl… babies instinctively go for the breast… but I’ll help him a little…”

Any thoughts of his son being some kind of fully mature super baby dissipated as the tiny mouth repeatedly tried and failed to latch onto the target. He paused, laying his cheek directly on the nipple as if to rest from the supreme effort.

“Come on,” Sakura encouraged him gently. “You can do it.”

The baby finally managed to latch on as Tsunade reentered the room. “Ah, good. Contractions?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you want the injection, or to see if the breastfeeding kickstarts it?”

“Ah… I think it’s going now.”

Tsunade smiled and retook her position at the foot of the bed. “This should be easy then. Well, papa and mama? Does he have a name?”

Kakashi looked at Sakura. They had a list, but how did one choose the right name for a person?

“I think I like Botan,” Sakura said, stroking the little head. “Feel how soft his skin is, Kakashi. Like petals.”

“Maybe papa would like to hold him while we deliver the placenta,” Tsunade suggested.

Kakashi expected Sakura to want to hold onto their eating son, but she looked up at him with a smile. “Do you want to hold him?”

He did and he didn’t. He was someone who ripped hearts from ribcages and turned a mountain into a valley. How could his hands hold something so small and delicate and not destroy it?

_Okay. Support the head. Don’t kill it._

The baby started to cry as he was lifted from the breast and held out in hands that wanted to tremble.

“Not so loose,” chided Tsunade. “He won’t feel secure like that. Hold him tightly and shake him a little.”

“I’ll crush him,” Kakashi objected.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. “Goodness. I get this ‘oh my God what if I kill my child’ from lots of shinobi, Kakashi, but I thought you had more sense than that. Give me a moment, Sakura.”

The former Hokage manhandled the current Hokage efficiently. “Turn him so that his tummy is towards you—that’s right—now bring him to your chest like this—perfect. He can hear your heartbeat there, and that’s comforting for him, because he’s been hearing Sakura’s heart for nine months. Now just jiggle yourself a little.”

Kakashi jiggled.

“There, see? You got it, papa.” Tsunade smiled at him with arms akimbo as the baby quieted, then turned back to Sakura.

Kakashi looked down at his son’s face.

Suddenly Yamato’s clone-based breathing alarm test seemed like the most reasonable thing in the world. Even feeling the tiny chest expanding and contracting as the eyes fluttered closed, Kakashi could hardly trust that the baby was truly alright.

“Botan,” he said, testing the feel of the name against the little being in his arms. The peony flower. A flower name like Sakura, but the king of flowers. If he was a ‘scarecrow in a field,’ he would rather his son be a peony—beautiful and blooming. “Botan.”

———

October 10th was once a memorial to misery, the day of the Nine Tails attack.

Now it was the day that Naruto saved the world.

“Happy birthday!” “Happy birthday, Naruto-sama!” The voices called as Kakashi and Naruto walked through the village, away from the Memorial Stone where Naruto had just made formal obeisance to the dead.

“‘Naruto-sama,’” echoed Naruto, tugging at his collar awkwardly. “That feels pretty weird dattebayo…”

“You’ll get used to it,” Kakashi said, remembering hearing similar advice from Tsunade, and then adding his own experience. “The more you protest, the more they’ll insist.”

“Aw, I don’t know if I mind exactly,” Naruto said, his face reddening a bit as he waved back to more cheering people. “It’s just weird. Plus I’m not actually Hokage yet.”

“You will be within the hour. Your dream is coming true.” Kakashi smiled at the young man that now stood as tall as him. “And you’ve earned it.”

With some hesitation still at the idea of initiating physical contact, Kakashi reached out to pat Naruto’s shoulder, but found himself pulled into a bear hug.

“Hey, Naruto… let go of me…” Kakashi remembered suddenly how Naruto had tackle-hugged him when he learned about the chuunin exam nomination.

_I guess some part of you will always be that twelve-year-old boy…_

“Naruto-sama! Kakashi-sama! Do you want some taiyaki? No charge!” A festival vendor waved at them, beaming with pride over her array of fish-shaped pastry. “Any flavour you like, as many as you want!”

Naruto looked as if he was about to disclaim the favour, so Kakashi hurriedly cut in before Naruto could ruin the chance at free food. “I’ll take two with red bean, thank you obasan.”

“But you hate sweets -ttebayo,” grumbled Naruto as the woman used tongs to select two fat little cakes and slide them into paper wrapping.

“They’re for Sakura and Botan-kun of course.”

“Oh!” Naruto scratched his nose. “I’d better get one for Tena then! Make it chocolate, ba-chan!” 

“Is Botan-kun really old enough for taiyaki?” Naruto said with a furrowed brow as they continued their journey to the main square where Naruto’s ascension would be formally acclaimed.

“Probably not,” Kakashi admitted, “but that just means that Sakura will tell me that I spoil him and eat it herself.”

Naruto laughed and began telling him about Suizei, his son, and how the infant was already rolling over.

“Hey, slow down kiddo!” Naruto laughed as Botan came barrelling out of the entrance to the tower chasing Tonton. “Sakura-chan, you sure this kid is only one? You just gonna let him run around like that?”

Sakura scoffed at Naruto as she came out through the door. “Are you kidding? I set Tonton to play with him on purpose. If he doesn’t wear himself out he won’t nap.”

“I brought taiyaki for you and Botan-kun,” Kakashi said.

“He’s too young for that! You spoil him. Here, I’ll eat them both,” Sakura said.

Naruto and Kakashi made eyes of mirth at each other as Sakura eagerly tore into the pastry.

“Up we go, kiddo,” said Kakashi, catching the toddler as he attempted to aim a kick at the harassed swine. “Papa retires today and then it’s Uncle Naruto’s turn with—yes, with the hat.”

Botan had made a successful grab for the hat and was currently contentedly chewing on the edge.

“Hey! I need that dattebayo!”

They all went upstairs, the slightly moistened hat cleaned off and given to Naruto along with his new splendid cloak with the kanji _nanadaime_ in bold scarlet down the back.

The young man’s golden hands trembled as he held them, kneeling before Kakashi.

“Uzumaki Naruto,” Kakashi said solemnly, “the majority of the jounin of this village have acclaimed you to lead the City Hidden in the Leaves. Will you accept?”

“I will!” Naruto bit his lip, probably to keep _dattebayo_ from spilling out.

“Will you govern by the Will of Fire?”

The lip was released briefly. “I will!”

“Then arise, Nanadaime-sama.”

“That’s it dattebayo?” As soon as the dreaded word was out, he squinted his eyes and hit his own forehead.

“Yes, Naruto-sama. That’s it. Now come on.” He took the cloak from Naruto and swirled it around the man’s shoulders, letting Naruto put the hat on himself. “Go and talk to them.”

Naruto’s blue eyes were as bright and warm as the core of a blazing fire. He suddenly laughed and _ran_ past Kakashi and out to the balcony.

“Hello Konoha! I’m the Hokage dattebayo!” Kakashi heard Naruto roar, and the answering roar of the crowd was just as joyous.

———

Orange fireworks burst in the sky. Though the October night was cold, Kakashi and Sakura were snugly wrapped up in a blanket and each other as they watched through the window.

Even in their residential district, people were holding parties and even floats were making meandering routes through the streets. The sounds of firecrackers and festival-goers chanting— _wasshoi, wasshoi!—_ faintly trickled into the room just like the flickering light of the distant explosions of colour.

Despite the noise, Botan hadn’t made a peep since they put him to bed. Perhaps worn out from too many exciting activities and too much delicious food, not to mention too many aunties, uncles, and cousins. The usually light sleeper was worn out: an unexpected boon to his parents.

“What do you think?” Kakashi murmured into her neck. “Shall we risk it?”

They made love, leisurely, the flashes of fireworks turning her pink hair now bright red, now brown, now purple.

Afterwards it was a literal afterglow.

“Will the fireworks go on all night?” Sakura said sleepily, tucking her head under his chin.

“They might,” he said, pulling the blanket back over them both. “But I don’t mind. I have nowhere to be tomorrow.”

“Mm-mmmmm,” she hummed in pleasure. “I get my husband all to myself from now on!” Her arm, with his words, fitted up against his side with her words in its usual position. She sighed with contentment, then smiled. “And will they all be alright without you, do you think?”

She had a light teasing edge to her voice, probably lovingly mocking his habit of riding to the rescue, but the question was exactly what the changing of power made him ask himself.

“I’m sure they’ll run into problems… and create problems… but I trust them. Naruto will be… the best Hokage we’ve had yet.”

“And will you be alright?” Her voice was soft and serious now too. “After everything, to just live a small life here with me? Do you think you’ll be satisfied?”

“There’s nothing small about my life with you.” Her green eyes met his charcoal ones as he caressed her face. “It doesn’t even matter anymore why we’re together. You are the most important person in my life. All I want now is as many years with you as I can have.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she laughed and rubbed them away. “I guess I’m still a crybaby. _Gomen nasai…”_ she paused meaningfully before ending the sentence differently. “ _…_ husband _._ ”

_How to put this… my first impression of you three is… I hate you._

“I love you,” he said.

The noise of the celebration lulled them to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! Thank you for reading, please do review ~~and validate me!~~
> 
> I might do further oneshots centred on other couples in this AU later.


End file.
